Grim Becomings: Intimations of Immortality
by La Vik
Summary: Sirius Black and Davie Maddux were practically children when they fell in love, children still when all fell to pieces one night in Godric's Hollow. After over a decade apart, can anything rebuild the bridges they never asked to burn? MWPP through DH
1. Chapter 1

_Introduction and Disclaimer_

_Just to any potential readers, a few beginning notes about this story - I started writing the dialogue of this story when I was about fourteen or fifteen years old. I'm really not sure anymore. But I'm almost twenty-one years now, as of this posting. When I first started writing this story, which is currently completely written in dialogue-form and only lacks the narration, the Harry Potter series was not even completely written, and there were a lot of things about the characters that weren't yet revealed. I was also considerably younger._

_While I'm editing as I go along and write the narration, I still like the feel of seeing the way the characters grow up as I as the author get older. It's going to be slightly AU, I admit ahead of time - it comes with coming up with the story before having all the facts, and being terribly attached to some of the things I've written into the story. But I really urge you to stick with the story and give any feedback you might have. This story has waited a long time to come to fruition in any case, and while I'll be happy to write it even if no one reads it, I would be lying if I said that I wouldn't like readers._

_I know ahead of time, I may already get a lot of flames for writing another OC story - it's terribly cliché, I know. I've tried to avoid being Mary Sue-ish with it, but I know the criticism will come. So, I'm prepared for it. I won't cry. Or I'll try not to. I also know the first few chapters which encompass the Marauders' first few years at Hogwarts, are a bit choppy, so apologies for that. It does get better._

_This story is rated T, but depending on how attached I am to a couple scenes and battles further along in the story, it may go up to M. But as of first publication, it is rated T, so for the most part, everything will hover at or around that rating level._

_And the final part of this introduction, the disclaimer: none of the things that appear in this story would be possible if not for the genius of J.K. Rowling, who, if I may inject my opinion here is ten thousand times the writer Stephenie Meyer of Twilight stardom will ever be. Sorry to any Twi-hards who may have wandered into the fandom! In any chase, only Davina Maddux, or Davie as she is often referred to in the story, was created by myself. Also, the reference in the subtitle of the poem is to a poem by William Wordsworth. The subtitle was actually not present when I first posted this story, in case you were wondering, but I added it around the publishing of chapter four because it was appropriate, and being familiar with the poem will give you a slight hint as to how the end of the story goes. So now, without further ado…_

**Chapter One**

_September the First, Nineteen-Seventy_

"And for Merlin's sake, watch the sort you associate with, Sirius!" Walburga Black said, tugging her eleven-year-old son sharply by the arm as he restlessly struggled to simply get away and get onto the Hogwarts Express. His younger brother, Regulus, looked on with glee as his older brother was being reprimanded.

"Mum!" he snapped, finally managing to get free of his mother's grasp. "Leave me _alone_!" He ran onto the first compartment he could find, which already played host to a few students who looked approximately his age. "Oy there," he said, scratching the back of his neck and dropping his things. "Sorry - I'm Sirius Black - would you mind if I -"

"Yes, I mind," said a boy with large glasses over his mischievously glittering eyes. Sirius blinked at him.

"Come again?" he asked incredulously.

"Only joking," he smirked. "James Potter. This is Remus Lupin, our parents work at the Ministry together," he said, gesturing at the boy next to him with flecked brown hair. "And Peter - ah, didn't catch your last name," he said honestly.

"P-p-pettigrew," the chubby boy stammered. Sirius held back a chuckle at him. Meanwhile, another boy stalked into their compartment, this one looking terribly brooding and, in Sirius' opinion, terribly greasy.

"And who are you?" James asked. The boy looked up shiftily as though he hadn't even expected to be acknowledged.

"Severus Snape," he said, his voice, even at this young age, matching the greasiness of his hair.

"'S a bit of a mouthful," Sirius chuckled before he could help himself, and the greasy-haired, pointy-nosed boy immediately glared at him. "Just being honest. Anyway - Potter, was it? First Year? Where are you heading, if you've got the choice?"

"Gryffindor," James smirked, puffing himself up proudly, "where dwell the brave of heart. Just like my dad."

Severus Snape gave a derisive snort, and James wheeled on him immediately.

"Do you have a problem with that?"

"No," Snape said dismissively. "If you'd rather be brawny than brainy."

"Well, who asked you?" James snapped. Snape merely turned on his heel and strode into a different compartment, mumbling about 'self-absorbed gits' and that he 'ought to have guessed.'

"What a wonderful boy. Ray of sunshine, he was," Sirius laughed. "I think he and I are going to best friends, that one!"

"What's that sticking out of your pocket?" James asked curiously when Sirius moved his arm and revealed something wrapped in colored cardboard wrapping. "Is that a Dungbomb?"

"_It sure is_."

* * *

"Davina, dear, now are you absolutely sure you've brought everything?" Celesta Maddux asked, tugging her only daughter back to her even though she was itching to get onto the train. Davina Maddux was a tiny thing with large brown eyes that looked a bit oversized on her small face, and long dark hair that she wore in pigtails nearly down to her waist.

"Yes, mum," she lisped slightly, tugging away restlessly. "Everything, mum, can I go now? Please, mum -"

"Oh, all right," the woman said dotingly, eyeing her daughter as though she were going off on a long, dangerous journey somewhere. "Have a good time at Hogwarts! Remember, write home as often as you can -"

"I know -"

"And concentrate on your studies! You can't let your mind wander like you do with your tutor -"

"I know -"

"And respect your teachers! Merlin knows they'll be frustrating, I remember how that is, but you need to -"

"Mum, _please_!" Davie whined. "The train's going to leave with out me, Mum, and then you'll have exactly what you want, I'll never leave the house!"

Celesta laughed, tearfully placing a kiss on her only child's forehead before pushing her gently towards the train. "Oh, all right," she said with a watery smile, though any mother knows that if they could simply keep their babies home forever, they would. "Your father will send you some sweets when you -"

"Honestly, mum, they're going to feed me!" Davie laughed, tugging her bags onto the train with some trouble. "I'm going to miss you too…"

She gave her mother a small wave goodbye then turned around before her mother could see that she had started to tear up a little bit too. Puttering down the train, she looked passed compartment after compartment, with no luck finding anywhere to sit. Everyone seemed to know someone already except for tiny, overprotected Davie Maddux.

"Oh dear," came a female voice a few doors down. Davie looked up and saw a girl standing in the hallway, looking into a compartment. She had very pretty, almond-shaped green eyes, and kempt auburn hair that gave Davie an immediately twinge of jealousy. Curious what she was so perturbed about, Davie left her luggage behind and walked over towards the girl, but after walking a few steps, she pinched her nose, shaking her head.

"Yuck!" Davie exclaimed. "Dungbomb. It looks like someone's been to Zonko's over the summer."

"Come again?" the red-headed girl asked, looking at Davie as though she were speaking some sort of foreign language.

"Err," Davie said, unsure of what to say. "Are you - err- where are you from?"

"Spinner's End."

"Come again?" Davie asked, now the one looking a bit confused. "I'm Davie Maddux," she added, still pinching her nose.

"Lily Evans," the red-headed girl said politely, wrinkling her nose as well. She glanced back the compartment that was emitting the terrible stink, and Davie then noticed it was covered in dirty streaks. This was definitely the work of a Dungbomb. "I - I think my friend might be in there," Lily said carefully. Davie pursed her lips and pulled out her wand.

"D'you think we should try a spell?" Davie asked. "I practiced a couple with my tutor. Eva-evanesco!" she said with a clumsy flourish, but due to either her lisp or her hesitant stammer, the spell managed to rid the compartment of the stains, but replaced them with two or three large sopping puddles. With the glass of the windows now clean, a greasy-haired boy glanced out with a sour expression on his face.

"Severus, there you are!" Lily said entering the compartment. Davie puttered along behind. "I thought we were going to meet - I don't know anyone here -"

"Excuse me," Severus said, looking quite embarrassed indeed as he left the compartment, slightly wet and a bit dirty from the previously offending Dungbomb. Lily stared after him, looking a bit puzzled.

"So you don't know what Zonko's is?" Davie asked, unfazed. Lily shook her head.

"My parents are - what do you call them again? Oh, Severus told me this at least a dozen times. Muggles!" she said with a nod. "That's what it was."

"Oh!" Davie said in wide-eyed surprise. "I've never met a Muggleborn witch before!"

Lily turned slightly red. "Is there - is there something wrong with it?" she asked.

"No!" Davie said, holding up her hands - she certainly was not keen on scaring off the first possible friend she had run into. "There are some people who - well, you know. They're not too sure about Muggleborns. I've just never met one before you."

"So you'd like to be friends?" Lily asked brightly. Davie nodded with a smile. Making friends, it would seem, was far easier than it appeared.

Suffice it to say that as it was for every batch of First Years, the arrival at Hogwarts was - well, magical. Lily Evans quite nearly fainted when she saw the groundskeeper, Rubeus Hagrid, for the first time, and Peter Pettigrew quite nearly wet himself when James and Sirius informed him of the Giant Squid as they were crossing the lake. Davie, however, was most impressed with Professor McGonagall who met the students at the front door. The tiny girl was clearly intimidated, but her anxiety was slightly eased when the woman gave a curt smile.

The Sorting Ceremony went smoothly as ever, and each student seemed to be placed in their houses rather quickly. Davie gave a snort when a boy with the surname Black gave a surprised and elated whoop when he was sorted into Gryffindor. Lily was sorted into the same house, soon to be joined by Davie, but the red-headed girl gave a slightly disappointed sigh when her friend from the train was sorted into Slytherin.

In the coming weeks, Lily and Davie soon learned that they had quite a bit in common. Lily Evans very quickly established herself at the top of their class. Davie, by following her mother's advice and concentrating quite hard indeed, managed to land herself fairly close, though her interest in some subjects was limited and caused her to get distracted quite often. Lily proved to be a good friend, reminded her friend when she had overshot the requirement on her Transfiguration essays when she wasn't even nearly halfway done with Charms.

James, Sirius, Remus, and, surprisingly Peter Pettigrew meshed together quite nicely as a group and very quickly managed to charm many of the teachers. As a whole the First Year Gryffindors were seemingly well-liked, except by the Slytherins it would appear.

"Imagine," the girls overheard a Slytherin saying in the hallways outside of the Potions dungeon. "A Mudblood witch at the top of our class. My mother might just _die_ if she heard -"

Lily froze - she knew well enough what the term _Mudblood_ meant. She grabbed Davie by the sleeve of her robes, tugging her into an alcove behind a suit of armor.

"Why do all of them hate me here?" Lily asked worriedly. She'd heard from Severus that there were some who weren't appreciative of the presence of Muggleborns in their school, but she had never expected it to be so bad. "Do you know, Davie? Tell me. I won't interrupt."

"Well," Davie said hesitantly, rubbing the back of her neck hesitantly. She really oughtn't have said anything about what she knew. She only knew things because her parents were Aurors in the Ministry, and often discussed work while they believed Davie to be asleep. "I don't think they've always been this bad but - my father mentioned this cult forming. A man - I can't remember what my father said his name was,' Davie mentioned, struggling to remember. "But they all think it's temporary. Things like this happen time and again."

"But," Lily asked quietly. "Whoever this is - he could come after all of the Muggleborns, and -"

"No! He wouldn't ever," Davie said resolutely. "Not with Professor Dumbledore here. He's the most powerful wizard in the world. But - I don't really know anything," Davie said, only wishing she hadn't said a word. "The only one who really knows would be the sort you, well…the sort you wouldn't want to talk to."

Fortunately, however, the first few months of the school term passed without any incident to mention for the girls - but four Gryffindor boys in particular were managing to run into more than their fair share of _incidents_. The last day of class before Christmas holidays, no Professor seemed to be spared from their celebratory barrage of Dungbombs and Filibuster's Fireworks.

The final class of the year, Potions, was planned to be the best prank yet - Lily and Davie were already wary of how many points their house would lose because of the boys this time. Davie had half the mind to stop them, but the worst thing about the boys was that they were terribly unpredictable, and terribly sneaky. While Davie was still thinking hard on what she was doing wrong with her Pepper-Up Potion, there was a loud crack, and an explosion in the cauldron of a nearby Slytherin girl.

Now, however, Davie saw her opening. Glancing at Lily, Davie gave an impish grin after she spotted another unused firework sticking out of Sirius Black's pocket. She pointed her wand at it and muttered a spell - it exploded immediately, and he gave a loud yell, jumping higher than normally possible then landing on his back on the floor. He glanced around conspiratorially, then pointed a finger immediately at Severus Snape.

"It was _him!"_

"Wrong, you git," Davie snickered from the back of the room. Sirius wheeled around, glaring at the girl angrily. Professor Slughorn, meanwhile, puttered over and wagged his finger at Sirius.

"Ten points from Gryffindor, Mr. Black," he said, clicking his tongue. "Terrible thing to do my boy - and Miss Maddux," Slughorn then turned on the girl, who flinched, prepared to lose house points as well. "You would do well to be more like your friend Miss Evans and stay out of trouble."

"Yes, Professor," she nodded, batting her large eyes dolefully. "I - I don't know what on earth got into me."

After class, Sirius stormed up to her, yanking her by the sleeve of her robes and turning her around to face him. "So," he said in annoyance. "You fancy being the avenger of the slimy Slytherins, do you? You could have blown my backside off!"

"I think I already did," Davie laughed, glancing at hole in the side of Sirius' robes where his pocket had been. Lily only half-heartedly tried to chide her friend for getting into a confrontation with him, rolling her eyes as James Potter flashed her a smile.

Needless to say, the Christmas Holidays were a much-needed break - if Lily and Davie had to be anywhere near James and Sirius a moment longer, they may very well have snapped. But after a good while of time away, things continued much as they normally would.

The second of half of the school term, the Professors piled what the students felt were miles and miles of essays to make sure all of the material was covered in time for end-of-year exams. By the middle of May, a single day's worth of homework seemed to take all night.

In Transfiguration, they were supposed to be able to turn a rabbit into a functional pair of earmuffs, but most of the class was only able to turn a bumblebee into a glass bead. McGonagall was often caught wincing at many failed attempts, which were halfway between animals and object. Davie's earmuffs still wiggled when she put them on her head, and Peter Pettrigrew's still had hind legs with which to kick him.

In History of Magic, Professor Binns often overlooked the fact that his students were sleeping - he actually seemed to overlook the fact that they were even there at all. It seemed that he was always speaking to himself. He'd often walk right through a sleeping student, who would immediately wake up with a start.

It was no surprise that the first years were growing more and more anxious of how difficult their first Hogwarts exams would be, if the preparation was this rigorous. Lily had managed to goad Davie into compiling and reviewing all of their essays, despite Davie's obvious reluctance. They were sitting in the common room quizzing one another on the numerous uses of dragon's blood, when the boys tromped casually over.

"How much for your help?" Sirius asked causally, leaning on the table between the two girls, holding out a scroll that was n doubt one of his essays. Lily glanced at Davie, who looked quite skeptical.

"Not for sale," Lily said righteously. "You lot can do your own homework."

"Oh, come on, we're just asking you to have a look!" James said in exasperation.

"Then you can ask Remus," Davie said matter-of-factly.

"W-we would," Peter stammered. "But he's - he's v-visiting his Gram, she's ill."

"Again?" Davie asked, raising an eyebrow. "She's sick rather often - every few weeks this year, I think it's been. I'm surprised the woman hasn't kicked the bucket -"

"Davie," Lily chided, "That's terrible to say!"

"C'mon ladies," Sirius said, crossing his arms. "Binns is going to fail us, we've already been docked for sleeping in class."

Lily, however, had clearly had enough; she picked up her things and gestured for Davie to do the same. "The nerve!" she huffed as they made their way back up to the dormitories; a couple older Gryffindor girls quickly became the boys' new targets, and by the sounds of it, they were just as quick to oblige. "They were expecting us to help them when they're ones who've been sleeping in class!"

"Oh, Lily," Davie said, rifling through her bag and trying to keep her papers from getting mussed. "Are you trying to say that you've never dozed off on Binns' class? Not even once?"

Lily turned her nose up primly, not saying a word.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

_September First, Nineteen-Seventy-Two_

The beginning of second year inevitably came, and so did the reunion at King's Cross station while waiting for the Hogwarts Express. Sirius Black had spent the last two weeks of the summer with the Potters and thankfully avoided another lecture from his mother, but immediately after coming through the barrier at Platform 9 ¾, he quite literally met the first obstacle of the year.

"Ouch!" Davie yelped as Sirius' luggage cart hit her from behind; she fell forward, but quickly steadied herself onto her feet. "Black!" she said shrilly, crossing her arms. "You know, if you would just watch where you were going, things would be so much simpler -"

"Maddux!" Sirius barked jovially, clapping her on the shoulder. "Your lisp is gone!"

"Ugh!" she said, throwing her arms up resignedly and shoving his hand away from her. Granted, he had a point - her parents had taken her to the dental specialist in Diagon Alley over the summer to correct her crooked teeth which caused the irksome speaking habit. "I won't even bother with you. Have you seen Lily?"

"I've only just arrived, do you _think_ I've seen her?" he retorted sarcastically. "Honestly, Maddux, you can be a little thick sometimes."

"Look who's talking," she huffed, gathering up her things and stomping off toward the train. Sirius, however, stared after her for a brief moment. Perhaps she'd gotten taller. Perhaps she'd grown a bit less skinny over the summer. Whatever it was, Sirius quickly pushed it from his mind.

The first class of the year was Charms, which many students except for Davie considered their favorite. The only hitch was that Double Charms meant two hours in the same room as the Slytherins, and even worse, Flitwick had insisted that the Slytherins and Gryffindors pair off together.

"Who in their right mind would let Slytherins and Gryffindors practice spells on one another?" Davie asked in a scandalized voice. She, however, was paired off with a sandy-haired Slytherin boy by the name of Romnic Digby who was in fact, quite handsome. She shot Lily an apologetic smile before going to join her partner, glimpsing the look of pure disdain on Sirius' face when he was paired off with Severus Snape, who appeared to have been edging towards Lily. His expression fell.

Professor Flitwick quickly set them to task of practicing Engorgement Charms, which they were supposed to be aiming towards bright, multicolored pincushions held by their partners. Romnic turned out to be a surprisingly skittish boy, flinching and dropping the pincushion whenever Davie aimed the spell at him.

"You need to stop going that or I'm going to end up hitting you, and it won't be _my _fault," Davie huffed, tapping her foot impatiently. Sirius, however, heard her comment and seemed more than amused. She shot a glance at James who was situated a bit of a way across the room. Davie didn't notice them and simply continued with Romnic, who was quite embarrassed by being chided by the small girl - it must have been enough to pull his act together, as they quickly managed to engorge their pincushions to take up the whole table. Flitwick immediately skittered over to them, praising them loudly. While Flitwick's back was turned, both Sirius and James wheeled on Snape and hurled an Engorgement Charm at him, hitting him straight on the face. One spell would have been easy enough to reverse, but two was a slightly different matter.

Snape's jaw immediately began to swell at an alarming rate, quickly becoming too big for his face. Lily gave a squeal of alarm as he stumbled around uncontrollably, losing his balance and falling on top of Davie, who made a sound halfway between a scream and a grunt as she hit the grunt.

"Im-Impedimenta!" Davie said, squirming out from under Snape and pointing her wand at his jaw - the growth slowed, though not stopping completely. Snape looked at her in surprise. Flitwick sent him to the Hospital Wing and instructed Davie to make sure he arrived safely; they were gone before they could even hear what James and Sirius would receive as punishment.

As luck would have it, however, Madam Pomfrey was quite overrun that day already with nearly twenty First Year students from flying lessons - a dozen broken legs and arms and noses, and a few more bumped heads and missing teeth were more than enough to keep Madam Pomfrey occupied.

"Here," she said, pulling a few bottles out of the cupboard and placing them onto a nearby table as Snape sat down on one of the infirmary carts. "You spend plenty of time with Miss Evans, so I'm sure you know how to handle the situation. I do hope she's rubbed off on you at least a little bit."

Davie gave a quiet harrumph as Madam Pomfrey left and uncorked some of the containers and poured the contents into a mortar and pestle, creating a mustard-colored, minty-smelling paste. She dabbed her middle and index fingers on both hands into it, looked down at it with a grimace, then looked back at Snape. "I'm afraid you'll have to sacrifice your personal space for a short while," she said matter-of-factly, tossing her head to one side to move her thick pigtails out of the way. With heavy apprehension, she reached forward, spreading the paste onto Severus' jaw, which, after a bit of kneading, slowed in growth and gradually began to shrink.

"There," Davie said, wiping her hands on the rag on the counter. She gave a small, self-satisfied smile. "Now we need to wait and make sure it doesn't start blowing up like a balloon again."

Snape blinked at the girl - they'd never really met properly, even though they were aware of one another's names. All he really knew about her was that she was Lily's best friend, and, in his opinion, a little less pretty and a little less smart. She was little bit like Lily's shadow. But in any case, he had noticed that since they started school, there had been distance developing between himself and Lily, and possibly, being on amiable terms with this girl would help maintain a link to Lily.

"Severus Snape," he said suddenly, his voice still slightly muffled as his jaw had not gone completely back to normal. Davie raised an eyebrow at him - it was certainly an awkward move introducing himself now, of all times and places, when they'd been attending the same school for over a year at this point.

"Davina Maddux," she replied with a small laugh, clicking her tongue as was her habit. "Are you going to be alright? I really ought to get back to class, Charms is my worst mark and I don't really want to -"

"I can manage," Severus said shortly. Davie gave him a small laugh, reaching out and grabbing his hand amiably - there was nothing behind the gesture except for Davie's friendly nature, often child-like in warmth and trust. To Severus Snape, however, who had no real close friends to speak of apart from Lily, it was an entirely foreign gesture.

"I'm sure you can," she grinned before letting go of his hand, walking out of the room; Snape was at a loss for how on Earth anyone could be so chipper. She must have been, he thought, either incredibly kind or completely daft.

As the school term progressed, the four boys, who had now taken to calling themselves the Marauders, became even more incorrigible in their pranks on the Slytherins. Davie had expected Remus to perhaps be the voice of reason among them, to no avail. One evening, when the girls were up late quizzing one another on the uses of Mandrakes, the Marauders strode through down the spiral staircase in their usual , haughty fashion.

"It's nearly eleven," Davie said matter-of-factly, glancing over towards Lily to try and judge her reaction ahead of time. "Where are you all going?"

"To the kitchens," James nodded nonchalantly. "We're hungry."

"You're all _so_ thick," Lily said, rolling her eyes. "Do you even have any idea what might happen -"

"No need to worry about me, Evans," James said with a broad grin, which only elicited more annoyance from the auburn-haired girl. "If we get caught, I'll send you an owl from detention hall -"

"Remus!" Davie whined, looking at the other boy for the first time during the conversation - Remus was their only hope, considering Peter Pettigrew would never in a million years contradict anything James Potter said was correct. "Talk some sense into your friends, would you?"

"I'm sure it'll be fine - no more than ten minutes," he shrugged nonchalantly. While he was certainly not as cocky as the other boys, he was no less mischievous.

"Tell you what, Maddux - you let this go, and I'll bring you back a whole pound of fudge," Sirius chimed in knowingly - and Davie's expression immediately wavered. She had a terrible sweet tooth, and had a penchant for swiping fudge from Lily's' dessert plates during dinner. She couldn't resist.

"S-sorry, Lily," she said bashfully, casting her best friend an apologetic glance. When Lily realized that she was suddenly very much alone in this argument, she huffed, simply looking away from everyone.

"You're such a weakling, you know that?" Lily pointed out to Davie after the boys had left - Davie sighed. Iwhile she was happy to be friends with someone of such outstanding moral character, but at the same time, living up to having Lily Evans as a best friend was no easy task. "Honestly. Fudge!"

Five minutes passed, then ten, then twenty. The boys still hadn't returned. Finally, after about half an hour, the portrait hole sprang open. The girls turned, only to find not only the boys, but Professor McGonagall as well. Davie grimaced.

"_That_," she said in a clearly annoyed voice, "ought to teach you boys not to wander the corridors at night!"

"Twenty points," Peter groaned in dismay after McGonagall had left.

"Each!" Sirius interjected. Lily looked livid, but at the same time, a bit pleased with herself for being right.

"That's _eighty_ points," Lily said, shaking her head. "That's _all _of the points I just won for us in Professor Slughorn's class today!"

"Oh well," Sirius chuckled, earning a very severe glare from her. Unscathed, he strode over to Davie, dropping a clumsily closed package of cellophane into her lap. Just one whiff confirmed that it was, in fact, fudge. "Just as promised. I'm a man of my word after all," Sirius chuckled.

"I don't forgive you," Davie snapped in response in order to appease Lily, but it was too late. The corners of the dark-haired girl's lips had already curled themselves halfway into a grin.

The next day at breakfast, the boys had all sat together, fully expecting their Howlers when Owl Post arrived. Davie jokingly brought a pair of earmuffs, tossing them toward Sirius who had been in his seat no more than five minutes before a large grey owl dropped a bright red envelope in front of him.

James, however, did not receive the same thing - instead of the telltale red envelope, a somewhat messily wrapped package was dropped into his lap. The boys all stared amongst one another, then stood up, rushing back to the common room - the girls were still too irritated with them to even bother following.

"An Invisibility Cloak!" Peter squealed.

"Have I ever mentioned how much I love your parents? D'you think you could adopt me?" Sirius asked, prodding James in the back. "We could have used one of those last night."

"Yeah, imagine all the fudge you could have brought back," Remus mused impishly. Sirius shot him a glance, but he made no move to elaborate. James, however, wanted to have a bit more fun with his best friend.

"You know, I never thought Davie liked fudge _that_ much, did you?" he laughed. "Well, you probably did."

"You two," Sirius said, pointing at his two friends, "are thinking something that I don't think you ought to be thinking, because whatever I think of Davie, it's not anything even similar to what you think _I'm_ thinking."

"Huh," Peter said, brow furrowing. "Too much thinking in one sentence -"

"Peter, really, I don't know how you can be so slow. They think I fancy Davie!" Sirius said with an exaggerated, raucous laughed. "And I certainly _don't_ - she's short, and loud, and always wears her hair in those absurd braids."

"Alright, then," James said nonchalantly. Remus simply masked a smile.

In any case, with the use of their new Invisibility Cloak, the boys very quickly managed to find numerous secret passages in the castle during their nighttime escapades which the girls not did not even know they were taking. In particular, Sirius was amused with a secret passage hidden in the hump of a rather ugly witch statue - it led to the cellar of the Honeydukes Sweet Shop in Hogsmeade. It also became a regular happening for Davie to find packages of fudge being delivered to her by an anonymous school owl in the mornings.

"Don't eat it! It could be poisoned!" Lily would always warn, but Davie was beyond the point of being able to listen. "If you end up in the infirmary, then it'll be too late."

"They haven't been poisoned yet," Davie mused one day. "And if I find out who's sending me these, I might just marry them."

* * *

_September First, Nineteen-Seventy-Three_

"Mum, please," Davie pleaded desperately as her mother tried pulling her out of the Muggle car they had borrowed to transport them to King's Cross Station. " Mum! I don't want to get out of the car!"

"Davina, you're being silly," Celesta said, trying to mask her amusement at her daughter. She remembered what it was like, being thirteen - she had been very much the same, a bit slower to physically develop than some other girls, and it was a strange feeling for a young girl to feel so different from the people around her. "You're overreacting, it's not terrible."

"I look like a stick bug, mum," she brooded, finally conceding and stepping hesitantly out, eyeing her surroundings warily. "I don't want to go - maybe I can just go back to being tutored at home. I can stay at home and no one needs to -"

"Darling, there's nothing abnormal about how you look," Celesta pointed out, helping Davie pull her trunk out of the back of the car. Her father, Emerson, stepped out of the driver's side, clucking his tongue at his daughter, who pouted at him in response.

"You're still my lovely little girl," he laughed, taking the luggage out of his wife's hands and bringing his daughter through the barrier, onto Platform 9 ¾. "You're just getting taller. It's normal. You should have seen your mother when we were still in school. You could clean a drainpipe with her-"

"Emerson!"

"- but look at her now!" Emerson Maddux quickly recovered. "She's absolutely ravishing!"

Davie looked down at herself and grimaced, feeling quite doubtful. She had gotten considerably taller over the summer, and in turn, quite a bit skinnier. She was actually… quite one-dimensional. While other girls her age were blossoming, she was just becoming more of a twig. Her mother had already let down the hem of her skirt to accommodate the change in her height, but to Davie, it was still too close for comfort.

When she arrived on the train, the inches Davie had grown over the summer did one not for one minute evade Lily's notice. Davie refused to even stand up straight, trying to allow her pleated skirt to fall lower and closer to her knees, insisting that she looked completely indecent.

Wanting genuinely to help her friend get her wits about her, Lily suggested that they take a walk - this, however, would not turn out to be the best of ideas. If anything, she felt quite a bit worse when they passed by a compartment occupied by Slytherins, and Romnic Digby gave Davie an appreciative once-over.

Furious, Davie stormed off before Lily had even had the chance to catch up. The only idea that came to Davie's mind was to go to the compartment that was normally occupied by the only people she believed would not give a damn. This was, she told herself, the only time she would go looking for the Marauders.

They, too, however, were not immune to noticing that Davie looked considerably different. Peter, the smallest of them by far, looked on in obvious confusion - they had always been about the same height, and now, even she had grown a bit taller than him.

"Where'd you get the stilts?" James laughed, elbowing the girl playfully. "Have you seen Evans around yet?" Remus simply shot Sirius a glance, smirking knowingly as his friend's grey eyes seemed confused between being shocked and - was it possible? - impressed. This, he decided, was going to be very strange indeed.

* * *

_A/N_

_This chapter was a little bit scattered, now that I reread it - but this is one of the points in the story where I take a little artistic liberty because I wrote the story before some things were revealed in the books. Namely, in this story, the boys become Animagi in fourth year rather than fifth year among other things. I'm also working on changing the ending possibly, even though it's already written, but I would need to change some foreshadowing written into the story. And, of course, this is just me rambling on with nothing important to say, but suffice it to say that even though this story is technically finished on my end, I'm still glad to call it everchanging. _

_**Jokegirl**__, my first reviewer! I always love my first reviewer, hee. Thanks for your review! I actually went through and did a couple of minor edits on the first chapter to help it stay at least slightly in tune with things that came out up to DH - mostly just adding references in. I was just really thankful that there was a Snape/Lily friendship already written into my first draft, or else this story would have completely missed the mark!_

_It's always so hard to get reviews in the HP fandom, so many other stories to compete with. But to anyone who has taken a look, thanks very kindly! Cheers! _


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

_September the First, Nineteen Hundred Seventy-Four_

"Were you kidding?" James said, shutting the door to the compartment once all of them had settled into their usual spot on the train. "What you said in the owls you sent us?"

"No, I meant it - I almost didn't come back this term," Remus admitted carefully, feeling rather terrible with the way his friends were looking at him. After a great deal of thought, he had decided to write them all over the summer about a secret he had been keeping for a good while; they were already growing suspicious about the fact that he was always going to visit his grandmother, as he had always used as an excuse. "It's just been worse lately and I don't think it's safe -"

"What are you talking about?" Peter asked, wrinkling his nose and squinting in confusion. "I never got an owl -"

"He's a werewolf, Peter," Sirius groaned in exasperation - and at that moment, they heard an obviously feminine yelp outside the door. Pushing it open, they found, alone, a very surprised looking Davie. Remus and James glared briefly at Sirius for his lack of discretion - which in all honesty was nothing new - then turned back to Davie.

"Are we going to have to wipe her memory?" Peter asked, picking up his wand, a movement to which Sirius was the first to respond.

"If you try to do it, Peter," he snorted, swatting the wand away, "Maddux's brains will be poured all over the floor. Didn't you nearly fail Charms last year?"

"Only nearly!"

"Where's Lily?' James asked suddenly - the other boys rolled their eyes at the fact that James could be so easily distracted, but he didn't even notice their expressions, very much set on obtaining information from the girl just in case they did decide to wipe her memory. "You're always with her on the train, where'd she go off to this time?"

"She's a few cars down with Severus, he didn't seem to want me eavesdropping. Never does like me listening in when they're talking," Davie huffed tiredly. "But that's where they are -"

"Lovely," Sirius said, crossing his arms - James was unable to respond, seething with absolute jealousy at the news that Lily was off in a compartment with _Snape_. He would certainly pay later. "Now that you've regaled us with that lovely story, I'm afraid -"

"I can help!" Davie said, holding her hands up as though she were being arrested. "I - I think I have an idea." She moved over and sat inside the compartment, even without invitation, shutting the door again with her wand. Remus couldn't even look at her, until she prodded him with her elbow. "I'm not gonna tell anyone, Remus," she said good-naturedly. "But - Lily convinced me to do some reading over the summer. We're learning about werewolves this year -"

"Brilliant, I'll be sure to have perfect marks on that essay -"

"- and the bite of a werewolf only has transformational qualities in _humans_," Davie pointed out matter-of-factly. "So if you could be accompanied by - well, _non-humans_, you wouldn't have to be alone. What if you became Animagi?"

"Davie," James, said, crossing his arms. "Your parents work at the Ministry too, you know as well as I do that if people see a bunch of teenagers signed up as Animagi -"

"Honestly," Davie huffed. "What kind of troublemaker are you supposed to be? You don't really need to _tell_ anyone you've done it!"

"That's dangerous," Remus pointed out hesitantly, but the other boys found the idea brilliant and set their minds immediately to figure out how it was done. Over the months that followed, they often sent Remus to Davie with questions, or concerns over whether or not she thought they may have botched something. Sirius, in particular, would often have trouble hiding the fact that her was unable to get rid of the tail when he practiced changing back, to which Davie would laugh - away from Lily, of course. Davie admitted to herself, it felt good for once to know something that Lily didn't. As highly as she regarded her best friend, Davie often felt as though she was never quite as good.

By midyear, just after the Christmas holidays, however, Remus was happy to report that the Marauders had been successful and finally would be able to accompany him during his transformations. From that point onward, Davie would make a point to watch them at least part of the time form the window as they ran across the grounds toward the Whomping Willow in the Animagi forms. Oddly enough, she found herself more worried about Sirius than the others; she chalked it up to being because he was clearly more reckless than the others, not out of any sort of preference or affection. The idea of affection toward Sirius Black was _laughable_.

Apart from their monthly excursions, however, the boys' nightly romps to Hogsmeade continued without even Davie's knowledge, as did the mysterious and intermittent appearance of parcels of fudge for Davie in the mornings. She strolled into the common room, snacking with particular satisfaction one day.

"Whoever sends me these must be a real gentleman," she laughed to Lily, who by now had come to terms with the fact that her friend was not in fact being poisoned and had lightened up about the entire situation. Davie glanced pointedly at Sirius with a deceptive grin. "You could learn from this bloke."

A pained expression flickered onto his face as Davie turned away.

* * *

_February Twelfth, Nineteen Hundred Seventy-Five_

"A boyfriend!" Lily said in a surprised voice - Davie had half the mind to clap a hand over her friend's mouth, as they were sitting in the middle of the common room. She had been taking great precaution to whisper, and Lily had gone and tossed it all out the window. "You have a -"

"Had! And I'm whispering for a reason, Lily," Davie snapped, raising her eyebrows urgently. "Romnic Digby - and we've only just broken up -"

"You've only just broken up!" Lily said in a scandalized tone. "And you went about this whole thing without me even knowing! You've been seeing Romnic when you said you were going to the library, haven't you? And -"

"You're going out with a Slytherin?" Sirius asked with a distasteful scoff, having overheard on his way into the common room after Quidditch practice; Lily rolled her eyes at the sight of James who had already been sidetracked, regaling a group of girls with a story of yet another brilliant goal scored by him. Sirius, however, had not been sidetracked in quite the same way. "Bloody hell, are you that desperate?"

"I'll have you know, Romnic is very nice, and very intelligent, and - and I'm not seeing him anymore, in case you were only _selectively_ eavesdropping!" Davie retorted indignantly. "And why do you care anyway?"

"I don't," Sirius scoffed, walking off to join his friends at a table on the other side of the room - Davie glanced at Lily with an irked brow, and Lily responded with a shrug.

"Hypocrite," Davie said nonchalantly. "You know, I know for a fact he's seeing a girl from Ravenclaw. What was her name again? With the blonde hair and the -"

"Why do you care, anyway?" Lily asked. Davie simply rolled her eyes.

"_I don't._"

At that moment, however, Professor McGonagall walked into the room with a piece of paper in her hand - her face did not look at all urgent, so it must not have been urgent. She simply tacked it onto the public board and left. Hurriedly, everyone hurried over to read it.

_Attention Students Fourth Year and Higher_

_You are cordially invited to attend the Cupid's Arrow Ball_

_To be hold on Valentine's Day, _

_February the Fourteenth, Nineteen Seventy-Five_

_Formal attire is required_

"A ball!" came the chorus of squeals from all of the girls in the room. Mary Macdonald gave an especially loud whoop, blatantly trying to get attention from whoever would give it.

"Who do you want to ask you?" Davie asked Lily curiously.

"Oh, someone's already asked me -"

"What?" Davie asked loudly, "But we've only just heard -"

"He's a fifth year. Prefect." Lily said primly, shooting a glance towards James Potter, who immediately tried to look as if he hadn't overheard. "Prefects have known about the dance for a few weeks now -"

"- and you didn't tell me?"

"Well, you've been scarce, maybe you were spending time with Digby," Lily huffed. "May I point out again, I didn't even know! Not even Severus knew, and I thought Digby was one of the sort he hung around."

"Don't be angry," Davie simpered, wheedling Lily insistently. "C'mon, Lily…"

"So if you haven't got a boyfriend, who do you plan on going with?" Lily asked her friend curiously. Davie was about to shrug dismissively when Remus Lupin strode over, tapping Davie on the shoulder. Lily simply grinned at Remus and gestured for Davie to turn around.

"'Lo, Davie," he said cordially, and Davie smiled at him, grateful that he had come over on his own instead of bringing his friends. "So about this dance," he asked nonchalantly. "Would you like to go with me? As friends? You've been a big help to me this term, after all." he asked quite smoothly - Lily and Davie, to James and Sirius' surprise, did not react with immediate disgust to Remus' arrival, despite the fact that he exuded much less charm than the other two boys. In fact, they seemed to welcome him into their midst quite openly.

"Sounds great! She would absolutely _love _to!" Lily piped up from behind Davie; the darker haired girl glanced questioningly at Lily before turning back to Remus.

"What Lily said," Davie laughed. "I'd love to. See you then!"

And with a grin, Remus strode back over to the table where James and Sirius were sitting with Peter, looking slightly displeased as though they'd caught a whiff of some spoiled milk. "Just asked Davie to the ball," Remus said calmly, purposefully avoiding Sirius' gaze to keep from laughing.

"Did you _really_?" Sirius said sarcastically, rolling his eyes. "I hadn't any idea, you were only right in the middle of the common room for everyone to see!"

Inexplicably, Sirius stormed off out of the common room, looking terribly cross.

That day at dinner, Professor Dumbledore called the entire school's attention to make an announcement, looking terribly displeased.

"_Students_," he began, his voice booming loudly over the entire Great Hall. "Earlier this afternoon, we were informed that one of our students appears to have gone missing. While we do not feel this is cause for all of you to panic, I feel it is of utmost importance to remind all of you to keep in mind where you ought to be at any given time. I find it of extreme important to find this student and decide who is responsible for his disappearance."

"Who is it?" Davie piped in.

"Severus Snape," Dumbledore replied succinctly. Davie immediately turned to glare at Sirius, sitting almost directly across the table from her, with a very bad feeling about the situation. Sirius, however, did not look perturbed in the least.

"I bet you think it was me, Maddux," he said, eyes narrowed as he leaned across the table. "Suppose you think James and I ought to take the blame anytime anything happens to _Snivelly_ -"

"Your words," Davie huffed, "_not _mine."

* * *

The day of the Cupid's Arrow Ball, Lily and Davie relished the opportunity to take the day off of class and wake later than usual - it was nice, Davie admitted, to simply not think about studying for the entire day and fuss over herself, something she honestly took very little time to do on a daily basis.

"I think you just agreed to go with Remus to make someone else jealous," Lily mused as the two of them were getting ready; Davie was running a brush through her hair and was for once letting it down from her usual pigtails.

"What?" she said, brow furrowing. "Who would I want to make jealous? If you're talking about Romnic -"

"Not Romnic, silly!" Lily grinned. "_Sirius_! He seemed rather upset when he overheard."

"Oh?" Davie asked impishly. "Not nearly as disappointed as James looked when he overheard that you were going with someone else. Nearly choked on a pasty, he did."

Meanwhile, the boys were downstairs, giving one another the once over before they were to split up and meet the girls they were escorting. James and Sirius, it would turn out, managed to very quickly snag a pair of twin Hufflepuff girls - Sirius was quick to haughtily point out that they were two of the prettiest girls in their year.

Remus was about to toss Sirius a witty retort when he looked up at the stairway - James and Sirius followed his gaze and simultaneously gulped at the appearance of two very familiar girls.

Lily had put her hair into a prim French braid with tiny white flowers sparsely woven in by Davie. She was wearing a rich, red-colored dress with sheer sleeves attached to a velvet bodice and a flowing skirt. Her lips were frosted a light pink color, making her eyes stand out on her features even more.

"I'm going, now!" she called out to Davie, before skittering down the stairs. She gave Remus a friendly wave, and walked very pointedly past James Potter without a word.

Davie, meanwhile, was still fussing a bit over the strap of her shoe. Her hair flowed down past her shoulder blades, a dark sheath contrasting her ivory-colored gown lined with gold that sat snugly around her waist, but flowed freely to the floor.

"Bloody hell," Sirius muttered, blinking incredulously.

"Remus! There you are!" Davie said, waving as she plodded lightly down the staircase. She gave him a glance and smiled kindly. "You look dashing tonight," she laughed.

"And you look absolutely regal," Remus replied, jokingly planting a kiss on the back Davie's hand.

"And - you look good as well," Davie said, glancing at Sirius after brief moment. "If I didn't know any better, I'd think you were a gentleman." Sirius blinked. "I'm joking," Davie pointed out. Whether or not it made anything better, Davie didn't stay to see as Remus invited her to leave the common room.

Sirius' jaw clenched. He hoped they had a terrible time.

At the beginning of the dance, Davie was far too shy to dance a single step, and Remus certainly had his work cut out for him. Davie had caught sight of Lily with her escort, dancing quite well - her parents had signed her up for dance lessons at a young age - and felt slightly discouraged.

"Why else would you come to a dance if not _to_ dance?" Remus laughed, tugging at her arm and trying to pull her from her seat. The heels of her shoes were digging into the floor as she tried not to move.

"But Remus!" she whined, "I don't dance -"

Remus, however, would not take no for an answer, and eventually wore Davie down enough to pull her onto the dance floor. "So, what was that you were saying about not dancing?" he asked teasingly. "You seem to be doing just fine."

Davie opened her mouth to respond, but was interrupted by the sight of Sirius walking across the floor and towards them just as a slower song was coming on. "Oy, Moony!" he called out, approaching the pair. "My date seems to have found someone more entertaining -" he gestured towards a blonde girl, now dancing with a different boy on the dancefloor. "Would you mind terribly if I borrowed yours for a bit?"

Eyes glinting, Davie stepped forward and stomped hard on Sirius' foot before storming clear out of the Great Hall, into the main corridors.

"What a slimy, despicable windbag," Davie huffed to herself, walking down a corridor and taking a turn that was somewhat unfamiliar in the dark. "I was having a good time before he came along and - oof!"

Her tirade was ended abruptly when she heard a loud thumping sound somewhere down the corridor. After overcoming her initial surprise, she rushed over towards the source of the sound.

"Hello?" she called out, unable to see anyone. "Is someone there?" The thumping continued, and Davie continued walking forward with her arms extended - she felt her palms hit something solid, and grasped a handle. Gripping it and giving it a hard yank, she felt it click open and something heavy than herself came tumbling out on top of her.

"Ouch!" came a masculine yell. The handle had clearly been attached to some sort of cabinet - the vanishing cabinets that turned up around the corridors, and screamed for pranksters to push poor unsuspecting people into.

"Who is that?" Davie asked, unable to adjust her eyes to the darkness.

"Maddux?"

"Snape?" she said in surprise. "You've - you've been in a cabinet? For two days?"

"Not," he snarled, standing up and dusting himself off. "by _choice_. It's not hard to guess how I ended up in there." Davie pulled out her wand and cast a small light on the area, and Snape raised an eyebrow. "A bit overdressed, aren't you?"

"There was a ball," Davie huffed.

"Hm," Snape said noncommittally. "You could actually pass for a lady in that dress." Davie fell silent, realizing that her earlier comment towards Sirius really had been a bit offensive. "That was a compliment, by the way."

"Err," Davie began, "thanks -"

"Snivellus!" came a voice down the corridor. Davie turned and rolled her eyes at the sight of Sirius. "Felt like bothering ol' Maddux for looking like a girl for once? I know it's a bit unusual, but there's no need to -"

"Do you hear yourself talking?" Davie snapped, pursing her lips in annoyance. "You're a bit of a git, you know - the only way you have any pride is to insult everyone else -"

Sirius flinched, but stalked up towards Davie without seeming too terribly affected by her words. "You know, it's very rude to talk to me that way. I have dozens of girls in there wanting to dance with me and I came out here to make sure that you were alright."

Davie was considering whether to retort or simply draw her wand, but before having a chance to do either, all of them heard the creak of a nearby door, followed by the heavy thud of footsteps.

"Three little students out for a stroll?" Apollyon Pringle, the school caretaker, said nastily. He was a tall old man with a bump on his crooked nose, and wiry gray hair. "You've just made my -"

"We were - investigating!" Sirius said quickly. Pringle glared at him skeptically, and Sirius glanced at Davie, for once looking pleadingly at the girl - Davina Maddux was wholly unaccustomed to Sirius Black actually needing anything from her.

"Yes, Mr. Pringle," she affirmed fluidly. "I - I heard a sound coming from out here while I was in the Great Hall for the dance. It wouldn't stop and I got worried, so I can out and I - I found Snape,' she said, gesturing at the other young man, who had simply been standing silently. He was clearly tired from being cramped up without food for two days, as he had no energy to argue.

Apollyon Pringle eyed the girl critically. "But Black -"

"He escorted me to the ball," Davie lied, a lie which surprised even Sirius. "And - well, sexist bugger that he is, he wouldn't let me out wandering the corridors on my own so even when I tried to step out without him, he came after me."

Sirius, of course, knew better than to let his confusion show - an alibi was an alibi after all - but he could not at all see why Davie was covering up for him, or why Snape was corroborating. He did, however, have a sneaking suspicion that it was for Davie's sake, something which he did not like in the very least.

* * *

_A/N's_

_I hope any of my readers (I'm not sure how many of them there are, honestly) aren't too peeved with me switching around things in the timeline - it happens a few more times throughout the Marauder-Era part of the story. And yes, there is another part besides the Marauders' years at Hogwarts in this story, which is the part I haven't finished proofreading. It's currently in the works right now, and I might make some changes to it, though that isn't likely. But you know, if you'd like to save someone or plead their case, feel free to do so in reviews!_

_I'd like to thank __**BlackGryphon101**, **Angel-son of Caesar**, **cocogirl198**, __and __**MistressSamoyedXXKingWhippet** __for favoriting and/or subscribing to this story. A special note also to _**_Angel-son__ of Caesar_**_, I noticed in your author's notes on what I've read in your story ("The Little Things") that James/Lily is your favorite pairing. Hopefully you continue reading this one, because Lily and James get a considerable amount of airtime, at least in the first half or so of the story._

_When people give me feedback or favorite my stories, I always try to mention them at least once out of appreciation in my notes, and often read their work as well, though I haven't had as much time lately, though for my readers of this story, I will hopefully start doing so more reliably once my school schedule smooths out a bit. _

_I'm also considering doing actual chapter titles, though it's something I haven't done in my stories for a good while. Opinions, anyone?_


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four**

_September the First, Nineteen Hundred Seventy-Five_

"I should have guessed you'd be Prefect, Lils" Davie said, staring admiringly at the shiny badge that Lily held towards her when they settled down onto the train. "Even though," Davie admitted sheepishly, "I did sort of want the badge for myself. I knew I'd never get it though."

Lily simply laughed and made no comment - she did not at all like that her best friend felt overshadowed. Lily Evans most surely wasn't trying. She did her best to make things as normal as possible, chatting amiably about their summer as they always would.

"D'you get a letter from Slughorn too?" Davie asked brightly, pulling out a piece of paper from her pocket and holding it out to Lily. "The - the _Slug Club_ - have you ever heard of anything so ridiculous?"

"Well, I suppose it's sort of an honor," Lily laughed sheepishly, pulling out her own letter and glancing at it skeptically as well - she had always been one of Horace Slughorn's favorite students for her natural gift at potion making, and Davie had caught his eye as well for her sheer resilience and good eye for identifying errors. "At least it's something."

"Yeah," Davie laughed. "Yeah, I suppose you're right."

It would turn out that Davie's summer was not uneventful - she had blossomed a bit over the summer, just enough so that she didn't look like a stick bug the way she had always complained - however, the attention she acquired walking down the train did nothing to help her either. In fact, it made her so uneasy that she put her robes on early to cover herself up at least partially, even though they were still hours away from arriving at school.

"OWLs this year," Davie pointed out with a small sigh, referring to the Ordinary Wizarding Level Exams that were taken by Hogwarts students in their fifth year - she already had her book open on her lap, glancing through the materials; she, unlike Lily, was not naturally gifted in most of their classes and attained such excellent marks because of deep concentration and relentless studying. "This is going to be terrible, I just know it - I don't know how I'm going to take all of this pressure -"

THUNK!

Davie was interrupted by the door swinging open on its hinges, the inside handle hitting the side wall of the compartment loudly. The Marauders entered, making a ruckus as usual. "Prefect, coming through!" Sirius barked - though he was quickly distracted by a certain dark-haired girl in the compartment who certainly appeared to have grown up a bit since June.

"You?" Davie asked in a scandalized voice, crossing her arms over herself and glaring at Sirius when she noticed the immediate direction of his gaze. "They made _you_ a prefect?"

"Merlin, no," James laughed. "No one in their right mind would make Sirius a prefect, that's ridiculous. Remus!" he clapped his friend heartily on the shoulder. "It's just brilliant, isn't it? One of the Marauders, a prefect. We'll never get in trouble again -"

"Not so fast!" Lily said shrilly, pointing her finger in James' face angrily, moving so quickly that, Quidditch reflexes an all, he jumped a bit out of the way. "You think I'm going to let you get away with a single thing from here on out, you've got -"

"I'm surprised!" Davie piped in, wanting very much to avoid a confrontation between Lily and James at the moment; Lily had spent a great deal of her letters over the summer reminiscing all of the reasons she was angry with James Potter, and Davie had a feeling that the emotion behind it was more than just annoyance, but she certainly had no desire to test her ideas at the moment. "You know, I thought James would get prefect - he does have the highest marks out of all the Gryffindor boys -"

"Being prefect," Lily said haughtily, eyeing James with utter distaste, "is _more_ than just marks. They overlooked him on purpose because, well - because he's just not good enough."

This, finally, the boys would take as a signal to leave. Now, even Davie seemed slightly surprised at her best friend. She had always had her disagreements with James Potter, but never had she been the sort to get so frustrated over simple things the boys did.

"Don't you think that was a bit harsh?" Davie asked once the boys had left, tiptoeing a bit as she brought up the subject. "They haven't really done anything yet."

"Oh, Davie, don't stand up for them," Lily said, leaning back into a seat in the compartment. "You'd have done the same thing if it was Sirius, wouldn't you? You feel the exact same way about him as I do about James."

Davie rolled her eyes slightly and didn't reply.

They arrived at the school, the train ride a bit more tense than usual this year, and sat through the Sorting Ceremony, hardly exchanging a word. Davie went even so far as to sitting across from Lily rather than next to her as she had through all the previous years.

The next morning, however, Lily and Davie were speaking again - grudges between them rarely lasted long. They walked together as always down the hallways to their first class - Double Potions with the Slytherins. This time, however, Davie noticed that thanks to the prefect badge glittering on Lily's robes, the crowds parted for them with much more ease.

It did not evade Sirius' notice that Davie had gone the entire day without making a single snide comment towards him - and after the previous day, it gave him the slight inkling that she might have changed her mind about the Marauders, himself in particular. When they sat down in Potions, however, he tried taking a seat closer than usual Davie, to which she responded by gesturing to Lily, and the pair moved to a seat on the other side of the classroom.

After a short lecture from Professor Slughorn about his expectations for OWL preparation, the fifth years were set straight to work on a boil-removing Potion. Lily, as always was well-concentrated and farther ahead than everyone else. Another perfect score, Davie suspected. Meanwhile, Sirius noticed Snape getting up to go retrieve more ingredients from the supply cupboard. Drawing his wand slowly and making sure to avoid being noticed, he muttered a couple of spells so that a cluster of pinprick-sized holes appeared at the bottom of the cauldron. By the time Snape returned to his work station, more than three-fourths of the potion had dribbled out, now pooled and stinking on the floor.

Snape muttered a string of curses under his breath - there would be time still to prepare another potion, of course, but it hardly seemed worth the effort - his mark on the Potion would suffer little if at all in the long run, but his pride would not be so easy to repair.

"It was him," Snape snarled, pointing a finger toward Sirius Black immediately. "It was -"

"It was just an accident," Davie spoke up immediately, garnering surprise from nearly everyone in the room, especially Sirius Black. "Look - it's just seeped out the bottom. He might have added too much bob tuber pus, to early on." In any case, there was no proof that Sirius had done anything, and that, along with the endorsement from the best friend of his favorite student, was enough to appease Horace Slughorn.

After class, as everyone was leaving, Davie was easily the first out of the room, but Sirius rushed ahead of his friends after her.

"So, what was that about?" he asked smoothly, putting on a smile as he cut his way in front of Davie, effectively blocking her path; he was still a good deal taller than her, and so, standing in her way was not hard at all. "I don't suppose I'm starting to grow on you, am I?

"Oh, please!" Davie said with a shrill laugh. "I just don't want Gryffindor losing points this early in the term because of your stupidity, is that clear?" she snapped, rolling her eyes and walking away. Sirius immediately wondered why he had even thought to ask her such a stupid question. Surely he hadn't expected her to say anything else?

But admittedly, Sirius thought, Davie was quite a bit better-looking than she had been when he'd first noticed her - not in the way the pretty, leggy, blonde Hufflepuffs were. Merlin, no, he thought. He was quite familiar with the Hufflepuff girls, and Davie was certainly not much like them at all. Davie was not even pretty in the way Lily was.

Davie was pretty in a way you could very easily overlook, in a way that Sirius honestly had been overlooking for years, concentrating on the fact that she was a bit too thin, and her eyes were a bit too big, her teeth a bit crooked… yet somehow he grudgingly admitted in his head that perhaps, Moony had not been too far off the mark when he accused him of fancying her. She was still a self-righteous nuisance - but at least she was a pleasant-looking, self-righteous nuisance.

"Where are you going off to?" Sirius called out before he had actually thought through what he was saying; he simply wanted to get her attention before she walked away. Davie turned around with a puzzled look on her face. "Going to go and find old Snivelly, make sure he finished his potion alright -"

"Shove it, Sirius," Davie huffed. "How desperate do you think I am?"

For some reason, Sirius took a bit of pleasure in this answer, and was quite distracted for the remainder of the day. In Herbology, he ended up dropping entire pot of soil all over a batch of baby Mandrakes. In Transfiguration, he attempted to change a baby duck into a tennis ball to only limited avail - it began flying around with its tiny stubby wings, bouncing off of walls and colliding intermittently with other students' heads. Remus and James were quite relieved when they managed to finally arrive back with him in the Gryffindor common room without breaking anything.

However, the instant they arrived and spotted Davie in the common room, Sirius tugged Remus aside from the others and made it clear what had been distracting him all day.

"Moony, ah-" he said, scratching the back of his neck and lowering his voice. "Listen, could you do me a favor?" his expression was stoic. "I just need you to take Davie aside for a bit and ask her what she thinks of me."

"You mean if she fancies you," Remus said with a knowing smile.

"What's this, Padfoot?" James said, striding over with an amused laugh, draping his arm lazily over his best friend's shoulder and shaking his head, mussing up his hair. A couple of second year girls nearby gave audible giggles, and James gave them a grin before turning back to his friends. "No stomach to tell Davie you fancy her face to face?"

"Shove off, him, Prongs," Remus blurted, trying hard to hide his amusement.

"I didn't say I fancied her, I'm only wondering. " Sirius said indignantly. "Besides, I don't see you professing your undying love for Lily yet -"

"Timing, my friend. _Timing_," James laughed, closing one eye and pointing lazily at Lily as though taking aim at her. "She'll warm up to me."

"Right," Remus laughed, socking him in the shoulder before walking off to Davie's table - Sirius turned his back so that they wouldn't see how intently he was focused on eavesdropping. "'Lo, Davie."

"'Lo, Remus," Davie said amiably, glancing up only briefly from her essay - Lily was, at the moment, doing rounds with the Ravenclaw prefect, leaving Davie to work alone - something to which she was sorely unaccustomed but also something she would need to do more often now, since Lily was not always going to be around. "D'you want to sit?"

"Sure," Remus said, taking a seat next to Davie as she continued with her essay.

"Sirius let you slip away for a quick chat with me?" she laughed, setting her quill down. "He's so bent on antagonizing me, I'm surprised he lets you be my friend."

"Funny you should mention him," Remus grinned. "Just out of curiosity - what do you think of him?"

"Sirius?" Davie asked incredulously. Finding the question abrupt and terribly strange; since when was Remus anything more than the neutral party, the liaison between the girls and the Marauders? "What do I think of Sirius Black? Is this some kind of joke?"

"No, I'm being quite frank," Remus said, albeit chuckling slightly.

Davie paused briefly, drumming her fingers lightly on the table; Sirius strained his ears to listen from his seat, in case perhaps she had started whispering. "I don't know," Davie shrugged nonchalantly. "I suppose he's alright."

"Alright," Remus echoed with a nod - the volume of his voice made Davie feel slightly suspicious. "Well, in what way?" By now, even James was straining to listen to the conversation - if there was a chance that Davie could warm up to Sirius, then Lily Evans may not be too far behind. "Do you think he's good-looking?"

"Well, I don't think any less of him than any other girl in our year does, as far as his appearance, I suppose," she said primly, a fairly accurate impression of Lily's usual tone in response to these sorts of questions.

"So, do you fancy him?"

"Don't think so," Davie laughed, shaking her head. Sirius grimaced after making a reflexive movement that entailed his kneecap hitting the bottom of the table at which he was seated. "Honestly, Remus, did you think I would?" she asked.

"Well, with all that couple-like bickering -"

"_Remus_."

"Not even a chance?"

"Well, no, not if he can't even speak to me himself," Davie said with a pointed glance towards Sirius, indicating that she had been aware that Remus had been sent as a messenger since the beginning of the conversation. "I'm going to keep on working on my essay upstairs. G'night."

However, when Davie arrived in her dormitory room with her things slung over her shoulder, she was immediately followed by a curly-haired, pointy-faced girl named Mary Macdonald, who occupied the bed across from Davie's, though she spent quite a bit of time sneaking around at night with boys; Davie never bothered asking what she was doing. There was no point.

"Did I just hear what I thought I heard?" she simpered, sitting at the edge of Davie's bed. "You don't like Sirius Black? Not even a bit?"

"Nope," Davie replied airily. "Not one bit?"

"So you wouldn't mind if -"

"He's all yours, if he'll have you," Davie laughed, tossing her pillow at her roommate. "And I don't doubt that he would."

"Do you really think so?" Mary said hopefully, her face lighting up joyously at the idea that she might have stood a chance with Sirius Black. Davie rolled her eyes at the girl, reaching over and shutting off the light.

* * *

For nearly a month after the incident, Sirius could not even properly look at Davie long enough to speak with her, let alone antagonize her in his usual fashion but as it was, he couldn't long resist James' egging on in trying to get the attention of Lily Evans and Davina Maddux.

Autumn turned to winter, and Christmas holidays rolled around inevitably. Students flocked home in droves, leaving only a few behind - Peter and Remus were among those who left, leaving Sirius and James alone in the boys dormitories. Lily and Davie were pleased to have the girls' dormitories to themselves as well.

"It's so quiet!" Davie laughed luxuriously, sprawling out on one of the sofas in the common room and putting her legs up, relishing in the comfortable spot in front of the fire. "All that's left are three seventh years and two firsties -"

"D'you forget about us?" James laughed jovially as he came down the stairs. Lily rolled her eyes and had half the mind to simply go back to the dormitory before Davie tugged her back down. "You're sitting in Sirius' spot on the couch -"

"I don't see his name on it anywhere," Lily said, pursing her lips and glaring at James.

"You don't need to be so unpleasant," Sirius said, perching himself on the back of the sofa in question. "To think we were going to invite you to come to Hogsmeade with us."

"Right now?" Lily asked in disbelief. "You must be mad. We wouldn't be caught dead going with the pair of you - I'm a prefect -"

"So is Remus," James pointed out with an impish grin. "Doesn't stop him from having fun with us. How about you, Davie?"

And for the first time, Lily looked at Davie, and she didn't immediately mirror he best friend's reply. In fact, Davie seemed to have second thoughts about agreeing with her best friend at all. After all, Davie thought to herself, there wasn't a great deal else to do in the common room over the holidays.

"Lily," she said hesitantly. "What if - you know, just one -"

"Fine!" Lily said. "If you want to hang around that sort, then it's fine by me but I'm not going to vouch for you if you get caught."

"Oy, mate," James said, elbowing Sirius in the side. "What say you take Davie to Honeydukes and I'll see if I can change Miss Evans' mind about joining us."

"Fine by me," Sirius shrugged, then glanced at Davie and nodded toward the portrait hole. Davie cast one more apologetic glance toward Lily before hurrying towards the portrait hole behind him.

"How do you know about all of this stuff?" Davie asked Sirius as he rather surprisingly help her climb into the hole in the back of the humped witch statue, being quite chivalrous.

"The boys and I have done our share of exploring - best stay close. You, ah- you haven't been down here before." Sirius said proudly, lighting his wand and walking ahead of Davie down the cold stone hallway revealed when they climbed into the statue. At the end of the hallway, Sirius pushed upward on what looked like solid ceiling; a large wooden trapdoor opened. Sirius climbed out first, then held out his hand to pull Davie up out of the passageway. When they emerged, Davie's grin was, as far as Sirius was concerned, a sight to behold, considering that this was perhaps the first time he had ever been the cause of it.

Her expression turned to one of particular glee when she came across an open barrel of fudge candies wrapped in colorful foil. "Oh, this is heavenly," she laughed, picking up a handful and unwrapping them all together. "This is better even than anything my secret admirer -"

She was interrupted by Sirius clearing his throat, and it only took her a brief moment to connect the dots. She put down the candy in her hands, paling in realization as she turned towards Sirius.

"Blimey, Sirius. It's been you all along?" Davie asked with a confused laugh. "But - but why? Is this supposed to be some sort of elaborate joke? You've been going on with it for more than a year, what's the point? Pretend you want to be nice, pretend to fancy me, or -"

"I wasn't pretending!" Sirius snapped suddenly, and Davie flinched - she was never quite aware that Sirius Black had a bit of a temper at all, because he was always so easygoing. Indeed, she had never seen him when he wasn't joking.

"Well," she said, clearing her throat and pacing back and forth a bit as she tried to regain her bearings. "I supposed this ought to explain why you've been such a git to me all these years," she pointed out in a weak attempt at sarcasm. "And all this bickering -"

"Would you stop trying to make sense of everything? This is like trying to have a conversation with a textbook," Sirius snapped irritably. "Davie - ah. Let's be honest, here. You've never fancied me? Never?"

"Well -"

"Well?"

"Are you going to let me finish?" Davie snapped, turning slightly red in exasperation. This, however, was more than familiar to Sirius. "I - I've fancied you a little for a while now - just a little!" Her gazed shifted quickly. "I haven't even told Lily that because, well - let's face it, you and I don't exactly get along."

"Well," Sirius said, letting out a breath and a small, genuine smile - not a smirk, but a smile. "Would you like to give me a chance to prove myself? I'm a very nice person, I think. Or, I can be."

"And humble. So very humble," Davie laughed, tilting her head downward to rub the back of her neck in slight discomfort. Only when she looked back up did she realize how close Sirius was now standing to her. When he reached out and placed his hands on her shoulders, she jumped slightly in surprise. Slightly dismayed at having apparently misread her openness, Sirius started pulling away.

"Wait!" Davie yelled, reaching out and cupping his face gently with one hand. They stood like this for longer than they were aware - Davie, for one, was unsure of what to do. She was never really unsure of how to act with Romnic Digby when they had dated - she had been his girlfriend, and she wasn't socially awkward to the point of not knowing that it was alright to kiss her boyfriend. But what was Sirius? Certainly not her boyfriend. Certainly not. _Absolutely_ not. Was this alright? And what would Lily think of her if -

Surprisingly, in order to quiet her doubts more than anything, Davie was the one who made the first move, lifting herself onto tiptoes and pressing her lips gently to his. Sirius smiled slightly against her lips as he placed his hands on her waist. She certainly wasn't as experienced at kissing as his Hufflepuff admirers either, but he frankly did not mind in the slightest.

"Davina Maddux," he chuckled breathlessly, smiling broadly when she pulled away from him, still allowing him to keep his hands lightly on her waist. "I think I could sing -"

"I wish you wouldn't," Davie interrupted quickly, her lips tight against her teeth as she tried not to smile too widely. But for the moment, it was briefly alright what she was doing - it was alright that she was out at night, even if she was a prefect's best friend. It was alright that she was perhaps, maybe even just slightly, enjoying the company of Sirius Black.

* * *

_A/N's_

_I don't know if anyone had noticed, but I've edited the titled of the story to include a subtitle, which is a reference to a poem by William Wordsworth that is going to come up later on in the story - quite a bit later, but if anyone is familiar with the poem, it might prepare you for the way the story is going to end. I'm going to bit the bullet and commit to the ending I had already written._

_To **angharad xoxo**, thank you for the review! I actually got super excited to have another review, it was a bit dorky of me, but anyway! I noticed on your profile, you're a Sirius fan! Perfecto, tee-hee! I also dislike bad spelling, but I do have typos here and there because I'm writing this without a beta-reader, so hopefully you don't shoot me for the occasional spelling error! I started looking at your story, "Remembering" and I like how you replaced Peter with Frank Longbottom - I don't think there are many Wormtail fans out there anyway. I actually never knew what to do with him, but I need him for later on in the story, so when Peter comes up in my story, he's mostly just nodding lamely and following the other boys around. Very little speaking. But I will most definitely try to read more of your stuff!_

_**Padfoot'sPixie**, so glad you liked it! Please, please keep following this story! As you can probably tell from where the story is focused, I'm a big Sirius fan too. So you'll be seeing plenty of him!_

_Also thank you to **Helbell** for subscribing to the story!_

_I think you can all tell by now that I get a little overexcited when I have readers that show themselves - I used to be a journalist and wrote lots of editorials and always anxiously awaited any responses I would get. But anyway - Sirius and Davie have now kissed! But that doesn't mean things get easy from here on out._

_A bit of a spoiler for next chapter - we're going to have Snape's Worst Memory to some extent, though I'm still thinking whether or not to include the actual incident. Still in the editing phases, so expect it in a matter of days. Then the chapter after that, things begin to lose their fluffiness a bit. Thank you, thank you for keeping up with this story, everyone!_

_Cheers!  
_


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five**

_February the Thirteenth, Nineteen Hundred Seventy-Six_

"The dance is tomorrow and you still haven't asked them?" Remus asked skeptically as the boys all worked on their essays for Charms. "What if -"

"_Timing_, Moony," James said, clicking his tongue and shaking his head at his friend. "Like I always say, when the time is right-"

"There _is_ no more time," Remus pointed out in amusement. "The dance is tomorrow, you two - I don't suppose you were just going to ask them ten minutes beforehand and hope to Merlin -"

"Well, I already know Davie's going with me," Sirius said haughtily, twirling his quill lazily between his fingers as he took a break from writing; he gave it one last twirling before flourishing it towards Remus' face. Truth be told, he was quite confident that after the kiss she had initiated in the Honeyduke's basement, there was simply no chance she would have accepted an invitation from anyone else. Just then, Lily and Davie walked through the portrait hole, and Sirius glanced at James. "But Moony's got a point. After you, mate."

James grinned lopsidedly and gave his hair another ruffle, striding over to the girls, adjusting his glasses smoothly onto the bridge of his nose and stepping in front of Lily, leaning across the way and resting on the back of an armchair. "Oy, Evans -"

"No."

"Pardon?"

Lily pursed her lips, exhaling through her nostrils. "I said _no_, Potter. Whatever it is, _no._"

Sirius chuckled at James being shot down - the fourth year girls on a nearby couch began chattering about it as if it were the scandal of the century. Sirius didn't notice that Davie was very pointedly avoiding his gaze.

"So, Davie," he asked, slightly mirroring his best friend's earlier stance and leaning lazily on the back of the chair closest to Davie with a wide grin, quite sure he would show James how asking a girl out was done. "What time d'you want to meet -" Davie muttered something almost inaudible, and Sirius paused, feeling a slight sinking in his stomach. "Come again? Don't think I caught that last bit quite right -"

Davie cleared her throat, looking up at Sirius hesitantly. "I, ah - Romnic already asked me last week and I said I'd go," she said very quickly. Sirius blinked in disbelief.

"Digby? Your ex-boyfriend?" he asked incredulously. "He's asked you - are you going out with him again?"

"I don't think that's any of your business but no, I'm not, I just said yes because he asked me in class who I was going with, and I told him no one had asked." Davie said quickly, her expression souring slightly. "You certainly didn't ask me _first_."

The girls on the couch tittered with laughter and whispers yet again - the two most sought-after boys in the fifth year were being turned down, publicly! Publicly! It certainly was a scandal as far as school-aged children were concerned. Lily and Davie retreated to another couch in the room, while the Marauder's gathered into a makeshift huddle.

"Oy, Wormy," Sirius said, elbowing the smallest in their lot. "D'you think you could convince her to give Digby the slip -"

"Why me?"

"Because you're the shortest, she'll feel bad punching you in the face," Sirius chuckled, though even the joking suggestion of being hit made Peter go a bit off-colour. "Oh, for Merlin's sake, go on!"

Peter glanced hesitantly at Sirius, but obliged, teetering across the room and to the other girls - when he approached Davie, she surprisingly allowed him into their midst. Secretly, Davie sympathized with Peter Pettigrew a bit, because they shared a bit of the same plight. Peter was hardly anything but a shadow to the other boys, in very much the same way that Davie had very little reputation besides being Lily's best friend.

"Alright there, Peter?" she asked politely. "Sorry to ignore you earlier -"

"Sirius wants you to drop Digby and go with him," he said in a quick, nervous voice. Davie's face went red all the way up to her ears, and the expression on her face made Peter flinch as though he believed her head was about to explode.

"I- I'll take that as a no," he stammered, scurrying back to James, Remus, and a very angry-looking Sirius Black.

* * *

The next day at the dance (Sirius and James had picked up the same pair of Hufflepuff twins as the previous year, as luck would have it, since neither of _them _had any second thoughts dropping their dates for James Potter and Sirius Black), Davie arrived just as she had stated with Romnic Digby. Digby was just as good-looking as Sirius, in most girls' opinion, with strong features, hazel-eyes, high cheekbones, and wavy brown hair that just brushed his ears. Sirius grudgingly had to admit that they made a handsome couple. A _very_ handsome couple, as a cluster of gossiping sixth years did not fail to point out.

But even more scandalous was the fact that Lily Evans, the poster child for morals and perfection and manners, arrived at the dance accompanied rather awkwardly by Severus Snape - James Potter was not only sour. He was _seething_.

"They're just friends. Best friends - go back to what you were doing _before_," Davie pointed out to everyone chattering as she passed by on Romnic's arm, still doing damage control for her friend, though it pained her to describe Severus Snape as Lily's best friend when Davie really considered that to be _her_ place. The fact that the pair of them had _both_ come with Slytherins instead of James and Sirius, however, would not evade gossip no matter how they tried to play it off.

"You'll never get in with us if you keep hanging around that sort," said a slightly older Slytherin boy, striding up to Snape and ignoring Lily completely - Davie glanced over and recognized him as a boy by the name of Avery; Avery had been well-known for following an older boy named Lucius Malfoy around in previous years. Malfoy had recently graduated, leaving Avery as a bit of the top dog among the Slytherins. Snape flinched as though he were a bad puppy that had been thwacked upon the nose with a rolled newspaper, separating completely from Lily, who he had previously been dancing with.

"What's he doing?" Davie asked as she was dancing with Romnic, craning her neck to look at Lily. "That boy, Avery, why is he -"

"Don't mind it. You don't need to worry about it, Avery's got no issue with you. You come from the right sort. " Romnic replied uncaringly, trying to give Davie a spin so that she was facing away from the incident occurring on the dance floor. Davie bristled slight at the mention of '_the right sort_', and Romnic shot her a charming smile."A joke, I'd wager. Probably just good fun-"

"That's better," Avery said, shooting a nasty grin towards Lily before turning back to Snape. "You have _questionable _taste in company, I must say. I wouldn't want to be friends with someone with Mudblood slime all over -"

"You take that back _now_!" Davie said, separating from Romnic immediately and pulling out her wand; James immediately did the same, yanking away from his date without so much as an apology. Lily looked all at the same time humiliated and horrified at being the center of the sort of scandal she took so much effort in avoiding. Angrily, she simply stormed out of the hall, with Davie following immediately after, shoving Romnic Digby away from her when he tried to stop her from leaving. As she left to follow her friend, she caught sight of a telltale grin on James' face. Avery was in trouble.

"Lily, come back!" Davie called out, glancing around the dark corridors for her friend, who she came across sitting behind a coat of armor, crying. "Lily, don't -"

"He's been my friend ever since before I came to the school, you know," Lily said sadly, sniffling and still slightly red in the face. "I don't know why he cares so much about _getting_ _in _with people like them -"

"They're boys," Davie said soothingly, placing a hand carefully on Lily's back. "They can't help being complete idiots sometimes, it's in their nature. Would you rather have gone with -"

"-if you say James Potter, I'm going to hex your nose off," Lily interrupted quickly. Davie responded wordlessly, only making a strange noise. Lily looked up to realize that Davie was trying quite hard not to laugh, and that in and of itself was enough to make her grin. In moments, the two girls were shaking with laughter that echoed quietly down the corridors.

* * *

_Mid-June, Nineteen Hundred Seventy-Six_

"How pathetic can you _get_?" Davie said shrilly, echoing the sentiment that Lily had earlier intimated at the Marauders. They had just completed the Defense Against the Dark Arts OWL exam when James had quite harshly embarrassed Severus Snape by hoisting him into the air by his ankles, threatening to take off his underclothes. Lily had taken Davie along, insisting that they needed to help him, but very quickly had stormed off, after Snape quite surprisingly brushed off her help - he had even gone so far as to call her a Mudblood.

Lily had stormed off angrily, leaving Davie alone with the boys, who had resumed picking on Snape, who continued struggling though not as wholeheartedly as he watched Lily walk away - and Davie felt a twinge of guilt. Regardless of the fact that she was jealous of the fact that Lily considered him just as good if not a better friend than herself, the idea of Lily leaving and not forgiving him pained her.

With Davie's intervention, James had finally let up on Snape, who immediately seemed remorseful and went to chase after Lily as Davie nodded towards the castle. This left Davie alone with the Marauders, looking very upset with them indeed.

"Oh, it's just Snivellus," Sirius said, still looking amused by the situation - he was greeted by a hard smack across the face from Davie, leaving a bright red mark on the side of his face. The surrounding crowd gave a loud, colllective '_ooh_' at the sight.

"You're going to defend him after what he just said to your best friend?" James said, stepping in and giving Davie a light shove away from Sirius, who in return responded by shoving James backward.

"Don't touch her like that, Prongs, or I might -"

"Don't defend me!" Davie said shrilly, shoving Sirius again - Remus shook his head and gave a small sigh, which would turn out to be a mistake, as it turned Davie's attention toward him. "And you!" she continued, jabbing a finger into Remus' chest. "What kind of prefect are you, letting them get away with anything they want just because they're your friends!"

Before any of them could say anything further, Davie ran off back to the castle. A bit of a way outside of of the Gryffindor common room, Davie ran into Severus, who was standing mutely, staring at the portrait of the Fat Lady.

"No luck apologizing to Lily?" she asked from behind him, causing him to wheel around and face her - surprisingly, he drew his wand on her.

"D'your boyfriend send you to finish the job on me -"

"You think Black is my _boyfriend_!" Davie said with a shrill laugh. She raised her hand, shoving the wand fearlessly away from her face - briefly, Severus wondered if she was sensible enough to be appropriately afraid of anything. "Are you alright?" she asked stiffly. "Where's Lily?"

Severus froze. The concern was surprising to say the least, considering that even Lily could muster nothing but anger for him at the moment. Davie, however, was not quite as closely attached to the situation and, as Severus perceived it, far too nice for her own good.

"I'm fine." he answered stiffly. "But I'd rather not speak with you. I'd rather not try your allegiances -"

"Allegiances!" Davie scoffed in a high pitched voice. "What is this, Parliament? The United Nations? You all take these stupid rivalries too seriously, the whole lot of you!" Davie said, throwing her hands up resignedly. "Merlin forbid I ever consider you my _friend_, who would want to be my friend when they could be friends with Lily -"

"Friend?" Severus asked in disbelief. He had never allotted much thought to Davie Maddux - he still thought of her more as Lily Evans's shadow, more than anything. He fit in with others quite well in that sense, as Davie was reputed around school for being very little else than Lily's constant companion. "Why would you be friends with me?"

"Dunno, didn't think you needed a reason to be alright with someone," Davie shrugged plaintively. "But I suppose you're sort of interesting, and, well - you know, you're real."

"Potter and Black seem fairly real to _me_," he sneered. "Real people full of skin, and bones, and hot air."

"But they're always pretending to be something they aren't - do you have any idea how exhausting it is to be around them?" Davie said honestly. "It's pathetic how hard they try to impress everyone."

Severus had no response towards this - she thought he was _interesting_? He thought back to his reason for remaining on decent terms with her in their second year: because she was Lily's best friend. Especially now, when it appeared that he had ruined whatever good opinion Lily had of him, it seemed beneficial to allow Davie to be his friend. She did, after all, come from a good family - Severus could speak to her about Lily without being insulted by the other Slytherin boys for associating with a Mudblood, at least until she forgave him. _If_ she forgave him…

"Maybe if you give Lily some time," Davie said knowingly, giving Snape a nod as she swept off towards the common room - and quite quickly, he felt a strange sort of pity for the girl. She was so resigned to always being second best to Lily. The pity slowly shifted to sympathy - Severus Snape knew his share about resignation.

* * *

"Are you alright?"

"Yes. Would you stop asking?" Lily harrumphed, looking up from her Potions book at Davie, who was situated in the four-poster next to her as the pair sat in their dormitory, studying for more OWL exams the next day. "Honestly, I don't care -"

"I'm sure it just slipped out, Lils, he's really upset about it -"

"_He's_ upset! Well, that makes everything alright, then! I hadn't any idea!" Lily scoffed shrilly, color rising into her high cheekbones. "Why do you care so much about him, anyway?"

"I feel bad for him - you've always been nice to him up until now," Davie pointed out, pulling a pocket of Chocolate Frogs sent by her parents from her trunk and ripping it open as she sat cross-legged in her bed, grabbing it before it jumped out of sight. "People say things they don't -"

"What about the dance?" Lily said, crossing her arms. "Asked me to go with him, and didn't even stand up for me! You and James Potter had to draw your wands on Avery, he sat there not saying a thing! _James Potter_ stood up for me instead of my best friend!"

Davie struggled for a response, even though Lily was right - Lily was always right - but had no time to find one before the door to their dormitory opened, and their other roommate, Mary Macdonald, walked in.

"What are you doing out so late?" Davie asked with an impish grin. "What's his name?"

"Romnic Digby, if you must know -"

"Well, he moves on quickly. Good on you," Davie laughed, receiving a playful smack with a pillow from Mary as she crossed the room to her bed. "Only kidding! I hope you're happy together. Long life and prosperity. You know, the usual."

"Sure," Mary laughed, wrinkling her nose; Davie knew full well that Mary didn't last too long with one boy anyway either. "Oh, Lily, there's someone waiting for you outside the portrait hole. Snape says he's going to stay out there all night if he needs to, the Fat Lady's about to scream for Mr. Pringle."

Lily paused, reddening slightly, then sighing. "I'll make him leave," she said in a dark tone.

"Lily, don't be too -"

"I _said_," Lily said sharply, interrupting Davie as she put on a dressing gown over her nightclothes and moved towards the dormitory door, "I'll make him _leave._"

Davie watched remorsefully as Lily swept resolutely out of the room and down the stairs. When she returned a few minutes later, looking even more red in the face and mumbling about Death Eaters, and that Snape was 'on his own' now, Davie felt very bad indeed. She tried to talk to Lily about it, but the girl merely shut off the lights in the room, refusing to discuss it any further.

* * *

_A/N's_

_Phew! New chapters two days in a row. I'm a bit proud of myself, I very rarely do this - mostly because I don't want to run out of chapters too quickly. But I'm starting to be a ham for all of the subscribers and reviews. More are always appreciated!_

_To __**cherryblossom2revenger, **__may I just say you area total angel! I thank you from the bottom of my heart for taking the time to write a bunch of reviews for me all at once. As for Davie being boring - she's a little overly normal, I agree, but she develops a lot from here on out. I just am wary rushing character development. I see so many stories where things are a bit rushed along, and I guess in attempts of avoiding that, I might have gone too far the other way._

_To __**Bathsheaba**__, I'm glad it's believable for you! I've been trying really hard to try and keep things realistic - you know, sounding like real teenagers and all, especially before the bad stuff starts happening and the Order has to form and all. Let kids be kids, I say! Heh._

_Also, thank you to __**Rmeyer90**__ for subscribing! _

_In the next chapter, things get a bit more complicated - the gang is getting a bit older after all, and we couldn't well expect their lives to remain this fluffy forever, could we? It's not all going to go downhill for them all at once, but pretty close and pretty quickly still. Hope you'll all stick around for the next installment. Cheers!_


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six**

_July the Fourteenth, Nineteen Hundred Seventy Six_

Davina Maddux loved her parents dearly - loved them more than anyone else, it was safe to say. Her parents were the only people who made her feel like she was excellent in every way, that she was better than average. However, as much as she loved them, she hated when her parents were called out of supper for work - she hated having to eat dinner alone at home, considering she was only home for the summer and only had time to spend with her parents _during_ the summer. Sometimes Davie jokingly accused her parents of doing it on purpose every time she volunteered to try and cook something at home. Tonight, she had tried making a roast turkey in celebration of her OWL scores that had arrived early that morning.

"We'll have an enormous dinner tonight!" Emerson Maddux had said excitedly, giving his daughter's hair an affectionate ruffle. "And maybe tomorrow, we'll go to Diagon Alley and get you a brand new owl, I think we have enough saved up."

"Oh, Emerson, don't be such a tightwad," Celesta laughed, hugging Davie tightly. "It's a bit tight, I know, but OWL scores are a once in a lifetime milestone, Em."

Emerson and Celesta Maddux were indeed loving, attentive parents - but they were also Aurors, and being an Auror's daughter often meant being home alone.

Evenings like these when her parents had to depart in the middle of a special occasion made her particularly grumpy, and she was right in the middle of penning an owl to Lily to express her displeasure when she heard a knock on the door. She rolled her eyes - her mother must have left the key behind, or dropped it while they were working. It had happened more than once, after all.

"When you're fighting Dark Wizards, you don't have time to think about where your keys are," Davie recited in a singsong voice as she scurried towards the door, recalling the excuse her mother always used when Davie opened the door for them. She sighed with a small laugh, resting her hand on the door handle. "Honestly, Mum, Dad, what would you ever do without me? Can't even -"

The smile faded when she opened the door and found, not her parents, but a pair of other Aurors - Davie did not know their names, but recalled having them over for dinner quite a few times.

"Mum and Dad running late?" she asked curiously. They merely stared at her for a moment with unreadable expressions - Davie noticed that they smelled like smoke, and their robes were faintly smudged with something dark red, almost brown. Blood…

"We're very sorry, Davie," one of the men said. "There was nothing we could do…"

* * *

_September the First, Nineteen Hundred Seventy-Six_

"Davie!" Sirius called out, darting through the crowd on Platform 9 ¾ after spotting a familiar head of long, dark hair bobbing its way onto the train. Truth be told, he had wanted to contact her all summer, but had either been busy arguing with his mother - things were getting particularly bad with her lately, to the point that he'd run away to stay with the Potters - or he simply didn't know how to speak to Davie about what he had heard about her over the summer.

It was all over the Daily Prophet, day after day, nearly for the entire summer - Celesta and Emerson Maddux had been killed in a Ministry raid on a suspected hideaway for a band of Dark wizards who called themselves Death Eaters; the hideaway had burned to the ground with Davie's parents inside. Sirius hadn't really felt right writing Davie an owl about his own complaints about his mother and his brother and Kreacher when her summer had clearly been far worse.

"Davie!" he repeated at the top of his lungs - which, for Sirius, was really quite loud. "Davie -" but she had already disappeared into the sea of people on the platform.

"Won't talk to you either?" James asked, approaching Sirius from behind. Sirius turned to face his best friend, who was staring at him with his arms crossed. "She won't talk to Lily either, not all summer -"

"How d'you guess that?" Sirius asked. James gave a slightly lopsided grin.

"She's been writing me this summer - nothing big," James admitted. "But you know, I live a few towns over from Davie, and Lily hadn't heard from her after seeing her in the paper. She wrote Remus too, quite a bit actually. Lily knows about his furry little problem now, actually. But nothing about Davie, so Remus suggested she ask me -"

"'_Oh, my knight in shining armor!' _was it?" Sirius imitated in a high pitched voice that sounded nothing like Lily - he grabbed the handle of his luggage cart and tugged it sharply. "She'll talk to me." And with that, he tromped purposefully onto the train to find where she had gone off to. It took nearly ten minutes to find her, sitting alone in a rickety, empty cart near the back of the train. He sat down next to her, using his wand to close the door and lower the shades.

"Had enough of the sunshine for one summer?" he joked lamely.

Davie merely sniffled sadly in respond, turning away from him.

"Davie, you can't keep hiding like this," he pleaded uncomfortably, trying to get her to even acknowledge him. He reached out and tilted her chin upward, and was caught by surprise to see faint dark circles appearing under her eyes as though she had not rested at all in weeks. "Davie -"

"Would you just shove off already?" Davie groaned weakly, pushing his hand away from her face. "Why can't everyone stop bloody _staring_ at me? I'm just so - I don't want -"she let out a muffled sob and leaned into Sirius' shoulder, hugging him tightly. Taken aback, Sirius gave her shoulders a hesitant pat - how did one deal with crying girls? Giggling girls, sure. Swooning girls, even. But Sirius Black hadn't the slightest idea how to deal with them once they started crying.

"Well, I don't think your parents would have liked seeing you this way," he said - when the shaking in her shoulders stopped suddenly, he became worried that he had said the wrong thing. "And, you know, we're all still here, if you want to -"

"I just…" Davie began, sitting up straight and going slightly red in the face as she realized that she'd just been blubbering all over Sirius Black. "I don't know why everyone looks at me so strange because I'm not acting normally - how can they expect me to?" Davie asked, running a hand through her messy hair. She was terribly embarrassed to say the least - but, as Davie saw it, it couldn't get terribly worse. She leaned over, hugging Sirius again and sighing. "The whole time I've been at school, I never cared that no one noticed me when I wasn't with Lily. I didn't care. Now I'm all over the Prophet and everyone knows everything about me. They even know my middle name is Aurelia -"

"Well, I don't read the paper, it bores me - I still didn't know your middle name, if it helps at all."

"_Git_."

"That's normal, isn't it" Sirius retorted with a smirk.

Davie sighed sadly, adjusting herself and still remaining close to Sirius, something she had never done before. "Just the way everyone looks at me keeps me reminding me that nothing is normal," she said resignedly.

"Well," Sirius said with a light laugh as she rested her head gently against the inner concave of his shoulder. He couldn't honestly say he didn't enjoy this particular aspect in Davie's shift of attitude. Perhaps, he thought as he rubbed her back warmly, she just might start fancying him enough to be his girlfriend. "If you want, I can try to be as much of a git as I usually am. All the time. That usually makes you feel better -"

"-shut up," Davie laughed, shoving him lightly; her eyes brightened slightly at the unfamiliar sound of her own laughter.

"And." Sirius continued, "I think I know exactly where we can find a compartment full of people who would be more than willing to treat you normally."

Davie first gave Sirius a watery smile, then allowed him inexplicably to put an arm around her, leading her out of the car - some third years who wear passing at that moment snickered, seeing the pair of sixth-years emerging alone from a dark, locked car.

"Now we've done it," Sirius chuckled to himself, though he didn't call attention to it in order to avoid making Davie feel uncomfortable. He led her over to the cart where Remus, James, and Peter usually would be found, and both were surprised to see that although she looked slightly uncomfortable, Lily Evans had also joined them.

"Davie!" the red-headed girl said, running up to her best friend and hugging her tightly. "You've been so _scarce_ this summer - I've been trying all month to ask you about your OWL scores!" Lily said enthusiastically, and immediately, Davie felt that things, as far as her friends were concerned were quite normal. "But, you know, I understand that you need time -"

"I just - let's not talk about it," Davie said with a small smile. "I just want to feel normal again, have things go back to how they ought to be. If my parents knew I was letting my marks slide, they'd never forgive me. Means you need to keep a closer eye on me," Davie said, nudging her best friend lightly.

As per Davie's request, the train ride continued as it usually would have. Sirius, however, looked unusually grump when Remus settled down next to Davie, and the two began cajoling one another with anecdotes. James looked equally as irked when Lily joined them, and they all began swapping OWL results.

"Davie!" Lily said in delight. "You got an E in Charms - your worst subject too! And all those O's except for - well, you didn't need Herbology anyway, did you?"

"You've got straight O's!" Davie said, staring at Lily's results in disbelief. "Though I shouldn't be surprised."

"You wanted to be teacher, didn't you?" Sirius interjected, scooting in next to Davie and trying to break into the conversation.

"Hm, I think so," she nodded noncommittally - it was what she had always expressed an interest in, ever since they were only starting in school. "That's why I want to take NEWT-level Ancient Runes. You know, the last thing we covered last year were the ritual sites of the ancient Greeks and Romans, and -"

"If you'd pay half as much attention in Charms as you did in Runes, you might just top the class," Lily joked.

"You girls need to slow down with all of this school business," James chuckled nonchalantly. "School hasn't even started yet, Mads," he laughed, flicking a tiny wad of parchment in her direction. "So, anyone for a game of Exploding Snap?"

* * *

_October the Eighth, Nineteen Hundred Seventy-Six_

"This is disgusting," Davie whined, up to her knees in water - Professor Slughorn had his NEWT-level Potions class wading in the lake, collecting tadpoles by hand. Davie had rolled up her sleeves and was swiping her jar through the water to little avail.

"You're such a girl," Sirius laughed, giving up on catching tadpoles and using his jar to splash water in Davie's direction; Lily and James looked on in amusement as well. Lily was slowly coming to tolerate James' company, though she justified it by saying that she just enjoyed how at ease Davie seemed around Sirius, and that she merely put up with James Potter as part of the package.

"Really? A girl?" Davie laughed, using her entire forearm to push a rush of water in Sirius' direction, so much that his hair was now wet and plastered to his face; his white shirt had started clinging to him in a way that seemingly attracted the attention of every girl in the class - except, to Sirius' chagrin, for Davie. Not receiving attention, as it turned out, brought out the worst in Sirius. He rubbed his hands over his wet hair, pressing it onto his face.

"Oy!" he said in a loud, taunting voice. "Remind you of anyone?" he nodded toward Severus, who was off on his own, and incidentally, filling his jar with more tadpoles than anyone else rather than messing around. Davie glanced at Lily, who had now taken to ignoring Severus Snape after the events of the previous year. Still, even without Lily to back her up, Davie glared at Sirius.

"Really, can't you be mature about -"

"About what?" Sirius chuckled, relishing in the attention he was receiving from everyone else, and, whether or not it was positive, from Davie. "About-"

"Sirius!"

"Oh, alright," Sirius laughed dismissively. "I won't bother - who'd want to start with him, all the Dark Magic he's gone and -"

SPLAT!

Davie's mouth hung open in surprised when she saw a large cake of mud and pond scum hit Sirius flat on the back of the head, with Snape glaring at him from a short distance away.

"Sirius, don't even," Davie said, wading quickly towards Sirius and trying to hold down his wand arm, glancing briefly at Severus, who hadn't moved - but Sirius was clearly much larger and much strong than Davie and extended his wand arm, yelling, "_Diffindo_!"

The spell hit Snape right in his left shoulder and the ripping of the material of his shirt was audible - for Davie, the scene appeared to happen in slow motion. Even from under the wet fabric of the shirt sleeve, Davie spotted something - was it a bruise or some sort of tattoo? - that she felt wary about. Before the ripped sleeve could slip off of his arm and onto the water, she did the first thing that came to mind.

"Flipendo!" Davie said loudly as she quickly drew her wand towards Snape - even Lily looked taken aback by her action, as Davie had never, _ever_ personally taken part in doing anything of the sort. Snape went flying backwards into the water - but when he sat up again, he looked rather less angry - clutching the soaked sleeve to his arm, he ran off towards the castle amidst pointing and jeers,

"Well, look at _you,_" Sirius guffawed, elbowing her playfully. "You couldn't help yourself either -"

"Oh, go get stuffed, Sirius!" Davie retorting, shoving him backward so that he nearly fell into the water. "I just did it because you'd look bad if you were the only one picking on him. Look! Even James is laying off of him -"

"That's sweet of you," Sirius said with a haughty grin, tipping Davie jokingly under a chin. Davie rolled her eyes in disgust, shoving him again unexpectedly so that he finally fell onto his back in the water as Davie, sopping wet and all, ran back up to the school in Severus' wake.

"Severus?" she called out, reaching the Entrance Hall and hoping that Mr. Pringle, the caretaker, didn't catch her tracking water onto the carpet. "Severus, my shoes are filled with pond scum, don't make me run after you any more, I couldn't think of anything else -"

"I understand." Severus stepped out from an alcove behind a statue once he had made sure no one had followed Davie inside. "You didn't need to help me."

"I know. And I'm not sure why I did," Davie said honestly, recalling how this time, not even Lily had stood up for him against Sirius. "But I can tell you're hiding something, and if you're not ready to tell it, it's no one's place to make you if you're not hurting anyone."

Snape paused, eyeing Davie with a strange level of suspicion before grabbing her by the forearm and pulling her into the nearest empty classroom.

"What did you see?" he said in a simultaneously infuriated and mortified voice, slamming the door behind him. "_What_ did you -"

"I don't know what I saw," Davie said stiffly, crossing her arms and narrowing her eyes. "But I don't need to. I can tell you're hiding something, and I know it's probably dangerous. That's why you're worried," Davie deduced. 'Severus, you're not hurting anyone, are you? You're not hurting _yourself_ -"

Severus inexplicably slammed his fist onto the nearest desk, effectively silencing the girl. His gaze on her was cold and cemented, but otherwise unreadable. His next words would not be of any more help.

"Don't feel sympathy for me. Don't help me anymore," he said stiffly. "I don't need anyone's sympathy, and I don't deserve yours -"

"Severus, you're not making sense," Davie interrupted, reaching out and touching his hand the way she had in the infirmary years earlier. Did she not understand, Severus wondered, that he was trying to get her away? "I don't know what you're on about, Severus," she began carefully, "But - well, try not to hurt yourself. I worry. We're sort of friends, aren't we?"

He bristled, yanking his hand away from hers, and to Davie's great confusion, strode out of the room without another word.

* * *

"What? Severus?" Lily asked, her eyebrows rising so high in incredulity that they nearly disappeared into her scalp. She and Davie were seated at a sofa in the common room, discussing something Davie had brought up about her encounter with Snape earlier that day. "I'm sorry - you think he _fancies_ you?"

"Well, you didn't see how he was acting earlier," Davie asked, looking equally as confused. "I only asked him if he was keeping any secrets and he started acting like he couldn't wait to get away from me. It's very strange, and I can't think of any other reason for it."

"But I _know_ Severus," Lily mused uncomfortably, then added, "I don't think he's the sort to fancy _anyone_, even you -"

"Snape? And Davie?" came a voice approaching from across the room. Davie's expression tightened when she saw the Marauders had already entered through the portrait hole. It was Sirius who had spoken up, clearly perturbed at the conversation he had walked in on. "Blimey, Davie, is that why you won't date me?" he taunted. "Moved on to - browner, wilted, greasy pastures -?"

"Oh, go get knotted," Davie said, rolling her eyes and giving Sirius a shove when he tried to sit down next to her, though this was admittedly much more good-natured than the way she had shoved him at the lake.

"You can't resist my charm forever," Sirius chuckled, slinging his arm lazily over Davie's shoulders. The dark-haired girl simply rolled her eyes.

"Well, look at the two of you," Lily laughed, too amused to even protest when James started leaning on the back of the couch right behind her. "You do make a handsome couple, don't you?"

Davie's eyes shot upward, shoving Sirius' arm away - she smirked at Lily, then crossed her arms. "Almost as handsome a couple as you and James, don't you think?"

"Oh, please!" Lily laughed, shaking her head. "James knows I'm simply tolerating him for the sake of civility - don't you, James?"

"Mm," he said noncommittally - and even Lily was surprised at the absence of a witty retort on his end. What had happened to him?

* * *

_A/N's_

_Another chapter! I know I really haven't written much of the Madduxes, but as characters, I did feel quite attached to them because I'd imagined them as such nice people. But you know - for the sake of a good story, someone's always got to be the first to go._

_Thank you to __**Jokegirl**__ for making her presence known via review again! At the risk of beating a dead horse, I love repeat-reviewers! Hint! _

_In any case - I've been on an updating streak for a good while lately, but the next couple chapters are going to need a bit of reworking - the next chapter contains a few big things that I want to make sure I've done completely to my liking. It's just going to mean that you'll have a two days wait or so between chapters, rather than new ones every day._

_Cheers!_


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter Seven**

_December the Eleventh, Nineteen-Seventy-Six_

_Hogsmeade Village, Late Afternoon_

"You know, I don't know what's the matter with that girl," Sirius huffed, still sour after yet another incident during which Davie had qualmlessly brushed him off - it had been something minor, simply that he had offered to carry her books for her outside of Professor Flitwick's classroom; she had refused quite quickly, turning a bright shade of crimson when she realized that everyone had heard.

Today, Sirius and James, closely followed by Remus and Peter, were going through the shelves of new products at Zonko's Joke Shop. "You know, when I took her to Honeydukes last year, _she_ _kissed_ _me --"_

"Y--you don't g-get so worked up over -- over the other girls you've been snogging. Never," Peter pointed out, earning a huff from Sirius. There were times he wondered why on earth they still hung out with the boy.

"Wormtail's right, you know," Remus chimed in gently. "That Hufflepuff girl you always bring to dances, you never seemed angry that she's finally seeing someone --"

"Well, she was easy to get anyway," Sirius said with a dismissive wave, earning an eyeroll from Remus at his brash attitude towards the girls he dated. He slammed a brightly colored package down on the shelf harder than was necessary. "You don't know what she said -- she told me herself when I took her to Hogsmeade that she had a thing for me, and now she's acting like --"

"Perhaps she was caught up in the moment," James suggested, juggling a packet of Hiccough Sweets between his hands. "You know -- you told her you'd been bringing her the fudge, and she thought it was the right thing to say --"

"You know, mate, you're just enjoying this because I'm suffering along with you," Sirius retorted with a glare at his best friend. "No luck with Evans as of late, am I correct?"

"_Yet_!" James said, shaking his finger fervently in his friend's direction. "It's like I always say --"

"Timing, is it?" Remus piped in with a smirk, and James playfully chucked a small package at his head; Remus leaned out of the way, but Peter wasn't so lucky. It hit him directly on the forehead and bounced to the floor.

"Sorry, Wormtail," James chuckled. "You should've ducked!"

"Oh, come now!" came a voice in the doorway of the store, sounding rather haughty. "You can't sit and spend the whole day at Scrivenshaft's, how fascinating could quills really be?"

The Marauders looked up to see a boy they knew as Pollux Winward, a seventh year boy with whom they really had no issue until he walked into the store, dragging along two sixth year Gryffindor girls who looked rather uninterested in his company.

"I don't think -- I'd like to --" Lily said unsurely, glancing around but not noticing James or the others at all. "I was looking at something rather important --"

"I need to use the loo," Davie said, quite loudly and unabashed so that people stared quite oddly at Pollux simply for the fact that he was accompanying a girl with so little discretion. "I do, _badly_," Davie continued as Pollux's gaze became shifty and clearly not quite as confident as it had been moments earlier. "I think that Pumpkin Pasty I ate earlier must have been sitting outside for quite a while and --"

"Right," Pollux said, backing away from the girls. "Well, you know, I'm going to -- I'll just have a look -- over there --Gbye!"

Once Pollux Winward hard walked out of the store and clear out of sight, the two girls began falling all over one another in uncontrollable laughter.

"Davina!" Lily squealed, grabbing her friend my the shoulder's bracingly. "Oh, did you see his face? That was brilliant!"

"Oh yeah, good show!" Sirius said sarcastically, clapping lazily as he walked over towards the girls, eyeing Davie with slight annoyance. "You know, it could have been avoided entirely if you had just come along with me like I'd asked --"

"Well, that's the beauty of asking, isn't it? You don't always get the answer that you want," Davie interrupted, glaring icily at Sirius. Lily sighed, glancing apologetically at the other boys. None of them could explain why, but it appeared that lately, Davie and Sirius could not even be in the same room without getting angry with one another - right when Lily and James could finally be in the same general area without Lily getting angry, something like this had to come up.

"What are you doing anyway? Trying to find Snivellus?" Sirius asked condescendingly. "Since the two of you are bosom buddies now --"

"Oh, you're still calling him that?" Davie asked with a derisive, rather unladylike snort. "You're so mature, Sirius, you've just won my heart, you have! And no, he told me himself --"

"Told you himself!" Sirius barked with a humorless laugh. "How very kind of him!"

"Would you just shut up, Sirius? I don't --"

BANG!

An explosion in the street resounded before Davie could even finish her statement - the crash was so loud and forceful that it shattered the windows in the shop. Lily and Davie, closest to the door, were blown straight off of their feet, but immediately shared a glance with one another, pulling out their wands and scrambling to their feet.

"No, you two, _back_!" James said authoritatively, grabbing both of the girls by the arm and pulling them back towards Remus and Peter while he looked at Sirius and nodded towards the door. Lily exhaled and stayed behind. Davie, however, ran behind them and crouched under the sill of the shattered window. The windows all over the street had been shattered, and people were scrambling about, many of them looking as though they'd been hurt or hexed. The only thing missing from the scene was a possible culprit - all they could really see was a strange, powdery mist in the air that made everything look slightly fuzzy.

Suddenly, a voice that sounded very distant yelled out an unfamiliar incantation, and a beam shot out from behind a nearby cluster of trees - it swirled and twisted in the air until it formed the gruesome shape of a skull with a long, twining tongue in the shape of a snake. Davie's breath hitched in her throat, and the straight, wet hiccup sound was what made Sirius turn around and notice her just as she sunk to her knees onto the ground amidst the shards of broken glass.

"Davie," he said, rushing over to her and shifting her, keeping the glass from cutting into her legs too deeply. He shook her slightly, perturbed by her black, skyward stare. "Talk to -- talk to us," he said hesitantly as everyone settled around her.

"That," she said, pointing shakily at the sky. "It's --"

Her mind wandered back to the night her parents were killed…

"_We're very sorry, Davie, there was nothing we could do…"_

"_Where are my mum and dad?" Davie cried shrilly at the men who were standing at her front door, stepping out of the door and not caring about the fact that she had no shoes on, and was not dressed for any sort of company. "Take me to them, take me to them now!"_

_The two men shared doleful looks, then each took a hold of Davie. With a crack, they had apparated with her to an unfamiliar location - they were standing in front of what had obviously been a very large, very beautiful house, but it was now little more than smoky, smouldering rubble._

"_My -- my parents aren't in there, they can't be," Davie said, shaking her head, though even then, tears were already starting to roll uncontrollably down her cheeks. She shoved the men away when they tried to restrain her in case she tried to ruin towards the ruins Things like this didn't happen to her - her family had always been happy and whole. They weren't rich, but they weren't poor. Davie had never had anything to complain about at home. Everything had always been wonderful - and now they were gone --_

_Davie's gaze turned upward, and squinted to focus her eyes on a symbol in the sky that was already beginning to fade. It was some sort of monster, something evil and gruesome. She would never forget it…_

"It's them," Davie continued, her grip on Sirius' arm tightening. "The ones who killed my mum and dad, they're back. They're here and they're going to --"

"Davie, listen to yourself," Lily pleaded, crouching next to her friend and trying to get Davie to look her in the eye. "They aren't going to come after you, we're going to --"

"Children, are you alright?"

All of them except for Davie looked up to see Madam Rosmerta running over to them through the strange mist. "You all need to come with me -- your Headmaster has just contacted me by Floo, the students are to stay at the inn for the night --"

"Why can't we just go back to the school?"

"Because you won't be protected," Rosmerta said carefully, not wanting to scare the children. She gestured towards the unfamiliar mist in the air. "This is Nixaserum - magic cancelling mist. You won't even be able to defend yourselves until it clears on its own. It won't be until morning. Come on now."

The woman quickly walked off, however, to try and round up the other students. James, who right now looked far more authoritative and grave than any of them had ever seen him, glanced at Sirius, who was still holding an almost catatonic Davie.

"Alright, then," James said, standing up straight; he was so focused on helping everyone, he didn't even notice the admiration in Lily's eyes for the poise with which he was suddenly conducting himself. "Remus, Peter, Lily -- come with me. It's sure to be crowded and we need to find a place to stay at the inn. Sirius, can you handle Davie?"

"I have her," Sirius affirmed sturdily, not taking his eyes off the girl who was still staring at the sky. "Davie," he said, shaking her again slightly once the others had left. "Can you walk?"

"Are they here?" she asked airily as thought Sirius had not asked her anything at all. "Are they? The ones who --"

"Davie, there's _no one_ else here," Sirius insisted, trying to pull her to her feet. "Come on, now, you need rest --"

"I'm going to wait here for them --"

"No, you're going to come with me even if I need to --"

"THEY KILLED MY MUM AND DAD!" Davie yelled tearfully, glaring at Sirius inexplicably. "They killed them, and I'm going to be next, I'm --"

"Davie," Sirius said in a low voice, the concern in his voice rising with every word he spoke to her. "You're going to listen to me this time, even if this is the _only_ time. I'm not asking you to a bloody dance or to be my girlfriend, I'm asking you to let me bring you somewhere safe --"

"I want to --"

"DAVIE!" Sirius bellowed, making the small girl flinch and immediately freeze. Mutely, she got to her feet, looking Sirius in the eye with a very strange, unreadable expression. He thought that perhaps she was going to say something, but instead, she simply fell into tears, almost collapsing hysterically against Sirius.

"Shush -- come on, now," he said, sweeping one arm under her knees and picking up her now cooperative form with ease. He was so concerned for her, he couldn't even relish in the fact that everyone could see her with him like this. He simply walked until he reached the inn room that James had managed to find before they were all taken.

"Well, who wouldn't give up a room for the Marauders?" James joked weakly as Sirius set Davie down on the bed where Lily was sitting - James was standing near an armchair, while Remus and Peter sat at the edge of another bed. Davie was no longer crying, but yet again sitting and staring silently.

"You should've seen her," Sirius said, scratching the back of his neck. "Couldn't stop saying she wanted to find who killed her parents --"

"That's terrible," Lily said, reaching out and placing a hand soothingly on her friend's back. "No child should ever feel that. Having to be faced with the people who killed your _parents_ -- I can't even imagine it."

"Me either," James said, leaning against a chair and looking on in concern, his arms crossed and his forehead wrinkled. "Davie -- are you alright?"

Davie sat still, not speaking, and simply breathed quietly, staring at a spot on the floor without showing any sign of knowing what was happening.

"Remus, maybe you should talk to her, she's more receptive to you, isn't she?" Lily suggested; Sirius looked briefly affronted, but nodded in assent. Remus slowly came forward, kneeling in front of Davie.

"You can't keep on like this, Davie," he said, patting her hand gently. "This wasn't anyone coming after you, it was just a bunch of gits in hoods who aren't brave enough to even show themselves, trying to get everyone riled up. Your parents wouldn't want you to be this scared - they'd want you to be brave. They were Aurors --"

"Yeah," Davie said weakly, shifting her gaze slightly upward. "Yeah, they were. And that's what I need to be --"

"I thought you were going to be a teacher?" Sirius chimed in. "Isn't that what you're taking all those useless classes for?"

"Well," Davie said quietly, wiping her eyes with the sleeve of her jumper and looking at everyone else in the room. "I've only just changed my mind. That's all."

Nobody honestly wanted to make Davie feel worse right now, and so, they thought it best to simply go to sleep. After everyone had settled into bed, Sirius woke up to the sound of the door creaking - he had always been a light sleeper, mostly because he hated being disturbed by their house elf, Kreacher, when he had still been living in his mother's home. The elf often tried to sneak into Sirius' room and take down the Gryffindor pennants on the walls while he slept; Sirius had come to wake up just in time to stop him.

This time, however, it was not a house elf trying to get in that roused Sirius from his sleep, but a dark-haired girl trying to sneak out. Sirius waited a few moments before stepping out after her, following her to the empty Three Broomsticks pub situated downstairs. A line of tankards still remained on the bar, presumably for students who were unable to sleep.

"Could you pour me a butterbeer while you're at it?" Sirius asked from the doorway, causing Davie to jump in surprise. "'S just me," he added, stepping a bit into the light.

"Oh. S-sure," she stammered, still slightly shaken. "Have a seat."

Davie filled two tankards with the frothy amber liquid and brought them to the booth where Sirius had sat down.

"Budge up a bit," she said calmly when she approached, and vague surprise registered onto his face when instead of sitting on the other side of the table, she sat on the cushioned seat next to him, nudging her slightly with her hip to make room. The pair of them sat quietly for a short while, sipping at their butterbeer and not really speaking - Davie was embarrassed with herself for the scene she had made earlier, and the fact that Sirius had been the one who needed to take care of her.

"You scared me," Sirius spoke up, his voice coming out in a near-grumble as though he wasn't quite sure about how to start a conversation without joking. "And I'm -- I'm not trying to make a move on you, Davie, you scared the wits out of me and you -- _why_ are you laughing?!"

It turned out that when Davie looked up at the sound of Sirius' voice, the first thing she spotted was a thick layer of butterbeer froth lining his upper lip; she was now trying desperately to hold back a fit of giggles, shaking her head at Sirius.

"Oh, Merlin -- I'm sorry, I know you weren't kidding, but --" Davie laughed, reaching out and using her thumb to swipe across the top of his lip. Sirius, however, caught her hand mid-motion and stared somewhat mutely.

He couldn't help but think that she looked terribly pretty, even in the dim lighting. She'd taken off her collared shirt and jumper in favor of the camisole underneath, much more comfortable for sleeping. The reddish light cast by the antique lamps in the pub laid shadows on her milky white skin.

"If you don't want me to kiss you, I'd suggest you speak up now," Sirius said in a hoarse voice, still holding Davie's wrist lightly. She said nothing. After a brief pause, he leaned forward, pressing his lips to hers - when it registered in his mind that she was actually reciprocating, he released her hand, which came to rest at the back of his neck, gently but quite tangibly pulling him closer. Briefly, Sirius considered that perhaps he had finally succeeded in changing Davie's mind about him. However, at the sound of something small - it might have been a mouse or a lizard skittering across the floor or the bar - Davie pulled back as though she had just been doused with ice water, glancing around nervously.

Sirius groaned, running a hand through his hair in exasperation. "Davie, how's about we be completely honest, yeah?" he said, glancing up at the ceiling trying to compose himself. It was evident that the more physical effects of kissing a pretty girl spared no one, not even Sirius Black. "Do I embarrass you? Is that why no one's allowed to even _think_ that perhaps --"

"Sirius, can you keep your voice down?" Davie snapped, unintentionally confirming what he had just asked without directly answering the question at all. "If this is about the incident last year --"

"The incident!" Sirius laughed harshly. "Is that what you'd like to call it? You know, I was under the impression that you fancied me as well, but --"

"That was _before_!" Davie retorted. "that was before last summer, before my parents died! Or were you hiding under a rock while I was plastered all over the papers?"

"What does that have to do with --"

"It has _everything_ to do with this!" she said in exasperation, standing up and beginning to pace back and forth. "I'm tired, I told you at the beginning of the year on the train. I've never been known for anything except being Lily's best friend, and now all of a sudden, I'm known for the fact that my parents are being dead, and I'm tired!"

Davie froze, running her hands through her hair with her back turned to Sirius. "I'm tired of being stared at like a museum exhibit -- and what are they going to do if I'm with you? What's everyone going to do if they see me with one of the most popular, most handsome, most sought-after boys in our year? They'll stare, and they'll talk -- so no matter how much I want to --"

"So you _want_ to!" Sirius said, standing up and tugging Davie by the arm and forcing her to turn around. "You do feel something --"

"Of course I feel something, what kind of question is that?" Davie hissed furiously. "Why else would I get into situations like this with you? Why would I make things this complicated?" Davie exhaled deeply, pushing away from Sirius and started running out of the pub, into the night, clear past the mist left by the Nixaserum to a clearing near the edge of the forest where the mist was gone. Davie kept running until she felt herself run into something - _someone_ -and stumble backwards.

"Err -- All right, Severus?" she asked hesitantly, not sure whether it was a greeting, or a genuine question; when she had run into him the hood of the cloak he had been wearing fell away, revealing his face even in the limited light that peered through the twisted tree branches overhead. "You said you weren't coming to Hogsmeade, what are you --"

"Keep quiet," he growled, very audibly trying to keep his voice from shaking as he drew his wand on Davie just as she was getting to her feet. "I don't want to have to hurt you, but I can't be seen by anyone. No one can know I'm here. _Oblivi--_"

"_Expelliarmus!" _Davie yelped, drawing her own wand quickly - her spell knocked Snape's wand away, and she quickly caught it in her hand. Davie was surprised even with herself - Severus Snape was perhaps the fastest with his wand in their year, and certainly had a way of avoiding being disarmed. Why was he so distracted, Davie wondered.

"Severus," she began shakily, tucking his wand into the pocket of her trousers while her own remained trained on him - maple and dragon heartstring, if Severus recalled correctly. Excellent for hexing. "You promised you'd be safe, whatever you're doing. You haven't been in Hogsmeade all day. What are you doing here _now_?"

"Are you that thick, Maddux?" he sneered, though it wasn't as cold as the sneer he saved for Potter and Black. There was a different feeling behind it. "Are you telling me you haven't figured out what I am? That mark on my arm you helped me hide --"

"You're sixteen!" Davie said shrilly. "Severus, you can't be -- we're _children_ --"

"Potter, Black, yourself, maybe," Snape sneered. "Some of use haven't had the luxury of being _children_ for long."

"_No._" Davie said resolutely. She had suspected what he was suggesting ever since the incident at the lake, but for the sake of her previously good opinion of him, she had pushed the idea to the back of her mind. She had considered him a friend, and now…

"I'm a Death Eater, Davie."

That was enough, Davie wordlessly turned on her heel with every intention of running away - she had broken into a steady walk when she heard Snape's voice again.

"There's more," he said gravely. "There's a reason I don't deserve your sympathy. You remember when I told you that, don't you?" Davie froze, turning around and squinting through the darkness at him.

"I killed them," Snape said in a low tone, the expression on his face conflicted as though he didn't know why he was even revealing this to Davie. "I killed your parents."

For a brief while, silence was the only response Davie could manage. Then suddenly, she walked back to Snape in purposeful strides; her hand flew threw the air so quickly that Snape could have sworn that it had whistled before striking him directly in the face, colliding with his cheek so hard that it snapped his face to one side.

"Do you know _how_ they died?" Snape asked through gritted teeth, not turning his face back to Davie who fully expected him to strike back. He could hear her breaths heaving furiously, and he saw her hand still clenched into a fist.

"The mansion was burned down, I saw it. Fiendfyre," Davie said simply, her voice shaking in anger. "That's all they knew. All anyone knew -- why did you --"

"It wasn't what I meant to happen," Snape interrupted, his eyes snapping upward to meet hers furiously - did she not understand? Did she think this had anything to do with what he _wanted_? "What was I supposed to do - they left me to watch the house alone. I was to protect what they were hiding at all costs. They'd kill me if I failed. Your parents were the first into the house -- they broke down the doors, and all I could think to do was destroy the house. It was supposed to come down on me!"

"_BUT IT DIDN'T!_" Davie retorted coldly. "It came down on my parents -- it _killed _my parents, you ruined my life!"

"You have my wand, I'm unarmed," Snape said coolly. "You could easily do the same. You could easily take from me what I took from them. With my own wand. No one would ever even know it was you if you were quick enough --"

"_DEPRIMO!_"

Davie's wand immediately shot out a strong wind, which shot by Severus' head, missing by only a few centimeters and whizzing past, knocking the limb clean off of a tree; it landed a few meters away with a loud crack. Snape's face twitched in confusion when he looked back at Davie - she couldn't have misjudged her aim from so short a distance, she had missed on purpose.

"I'm not going to kill you, Severus," Davie said in a blank voice. Her eyes were dark and sad, "And I won't tell anyone what you've done. The worst they can do is put you in Azkaban and be done with it. You chose your path -- the worst punishment you can be given is to be forced to follow it. _Wherever_ it takes you, and we'll see --"

"_This_," Snape said, extending his arm and rolling up his sleeve, revealing the Dark Mark to Davie, "is the only way for me to be respected. You -- you and Black and Potter -- you've _never_ had to wonder what respect felt like --"

"So I've gotten what I deserved!" Davie said in a shrill, humorless laugh, evidently starting to cry judging by the way her breath hitched in her throat at the mere effort of forcing herself to laugh. "Now I get to live through everyone's pity and their scrutiny --"

"This was never meant to affect you." Snape said coldly. "It's nothing to do with you."

Davie's heavy breathing was the only thing that broke the silence between them. For quite a long while, even in the cold, they simply stood in the same place, staring at one another blankly until finally, Davie threw Snape's wand into the dirt between them.

"Alright, then," Davie said coldly - the coldness in her eyes, in her voice, and in her words, while not as meaningful to Severus as Lily's, was equally as frigid, and equally as harsh. The words sounded so much like Lily's. "This is your life, Severus. You've made your choice -- my life is going to get better, but if you keep on this way, I can assure you, yours won't." She vehemently kicked more dirt over the wand, then turned her face away coldly. "You'd best _leave_."

***

_A/N's_

_Phew. Drama! And if I'm not mistaken, the longest chapter so far, so thank you to anyone who sat through it! From here on out come the changes we have everyone going through, slowly but surely - we're going to get started on actual romances soon, but also, obviously dealing with the introduction of Dark Magic and Death Eaters._

_Thank you to __**Melora**__ for the reviews! I took a peek at the site you linked me to and it looks interesting! I'm the admin on an RP site myself. Will consider it! Anyway, until my next update everyone! Cheers!_


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter Eight**

_January the Twenty-Ninth, Nineteen-Seventy-Seven_

"Davie," Lily asked carefully, peering through the curtains of her friend's four-poster bed. Davie looked up from her Charms text calmly. "Are you coming down to the Great Hall for dinner tonight?"

It had been over a month since the incident in Hogsmeade, and still, no one knew what exactly was wrong with Davie. She had been so reclusive after that night - she seemed quite normal when she was around people outside of class, to be fair, but these occasion were notably few and far between. She instead spent insane amounts of time -- even more time than Lily -- studying, obsessing over the classes she would need to become an Auror. The idea of scrawny, wide-eyed, tagalong Davina Maddux being as good an Auror as her parents seemed far-fetched, to say the least. Even Professor McGonagall, their Head of House, looked upon Davie's decision somewhat questioningly.

"It is an _admirable_ profession," McGonagall had told Davie carefully when she had dropped into the Deputy Headmistress's office to inform her about the sudden decision. "And your marks are more than sufficient -- but I was under the impression that you wanted to _teach_."

"I did," Davie said plainly. "But -- well, now I don't anymore."

"If this is about what happened to Celesta and Emerson --"

"No," Davie said, sounding unsettlingly chipper. "I've just -- done a lot of thinking and I think they'd want me to carry on where they left off."

Unbeknownst to all of them, it had taken hearing the truth from Snape to come to terms with her parents' death, however slowly. It was too difficult to explain to them what the confrontation had consisted of, and though it was probably a Ministry matter, she considered her issues with Severus Snape personal, so she had opted to keep them to herself.

Today, however, she finally felt a little different, a little better, a little more ready to be around everyone.

"Yeah," she said brightly in response to Lily's question, shutting her book and placing down with a 'thud' on her bedside table - when she saw the surprise it elicited from Lily, she laughed, getting out of her bed and repeating herself. "Yeah, I think I will." Davie followed Lily along to the Great Hall, and upon entering, James pointed them out immediately.

"Oh, you're still going here, are you?" Remus joked as Davie sat down. "I'd completely forgotten -- only joking! It's good to see you."

"And the same," she smirked, wrinkling her nose slightly. "Regards to your grandmother - I heard she wasn't feeling well last week."

"Recovered without a hitch, not to worry," Lily answered for Remus with a small grin - it was quite nice to have someone else in on Remus' secret, and Remus found that Lily had been incredibly understanding of the entire thing. In fact, in the past few weeks while Davie had been unreachable, the fact that James had actually done something so -- so _responsible --_ had contributed to her ability to at least tolerate being around him, even without Davie.

"Could you ask Davie to pass the pumpkin juice?" Sirius asked stiffly from a few spots down the table. "We've only got milk on this end." Everyone besides himself and Davie shared exasperated looks at the two. Though none of them knew what they had argued about in Hogsmeade, it was clear that Sirius' pride was still badly wounded, and with Davie secluding herself, it had only gotten worse. Lily, however, glanced at the other boys with a knowing grin before Professor Dumbledore addressed the students from his place at the head table.

"Good evening -- I hope your classes today have gone well," Dumbledore said, his warm voice magically amplified in the hall. "I'm pleased to inform you that to date, our First Year students have evaded any serious Potions accidents. I wish," he said, aiming a twinkling glance toward James and Sirius in particular, "that I could say the same for some of our older students."

"But no matter," he continued with a chuckle. "On a more positive note, Professor Slughorn would like to congratulate Miss Lily Evans, Gryffindor prefect, for achieving yet another perfect potions practical."

Lily reddened slightly when James whooped and cheered loudly at the mention of her name; Severus, from the Slytherin table, sneered coldly.

"We would also like to warmly extend an invitation to all students fourth year and above to this year's Cupid's Arrow Ball - due to recent events, the staff had not thought it appropriate to continue, but we could not stand to deprive our students of a small bit of enjoyment. Now, I would gladly entice you all to a delicious dinner, and may the hunt of your escorts begin."

Dumbledore clapped his hand, and food appeared on the table - but as expected, many of the students immediately diverted their attention elsewhere.

"Lily, you knew, didn't you?" Davie laughed, nudging her friend with her shoulder. "You knew they wouldn't cancel the dance this year!"

"Well it's not my fault you never gave me the chance to tell you -- Remus already told James as well," Lily shrugged. "The prefects have been working on it for weeks by now."

"Oh, fine," she grinned, shrugging and reaching to grab herself a turkey leg. While her attention was elsewhere, Lily caught James' eye and nodded towards Davie. James nodded in repsonse, then smoothly turned to Sirius.

"So, Padfoot," leaning in front of him on the table and nudging him in the ribs; he gave a grunt of annoyance at being distracted from his dinner. "What's keeping you?"

"Fraid I'm not following," Sirius said blankly, shoving a spoonful of roasted carrots into his mouth without even looking up. James rolled his eyes.

"You heard Dumbledore. The _dance_ --"

"Right. You asked Evans yet??"

"Don't worry about me," James said, rolling his eyes yet again at his friend's hard-headedness. "The question is, when are _you _going to ask Davie?"

"I'm not," Sirius said before taking another bite of his vegetables, taking his sweet time chewing.

"Am I hearing correctly?" Remus chuckled, leaning across the table and tapping his fork on the side of his plate. "Sirius Black? Giving up? Am I going to have to ask her again --"

"_Try it_, Moony," Sirius said in a low whisper, raising his eyebrows in a mock-threat. "And I'll shave off your eyebrows in your sleep - who ever heard of a wolf without eyebrows --"

"Then _ask_ her," Remus said, rolling his eyes - Sirius wondered why everyone insisted on doing that every time he spoke about Davie lately. "Honestly, she's sitting a few seats away from you and you still --"

"You want me to be shot down in front of everyone, is that it?" Sirius asked, laughing incredulously. "Now, Mary Macdonald, there's a girl who won't refuse--"

"Scared?" James asked with a smirk. This clearly sent Sirius singing a different tune - never, never in a hundred centuries, would he allow anyone to think he was _scared_ of anyone, especially not a _girl_. With a determined frown, he got up and plopped lazily down in the empty seat next to Davie.

"Oh, look!" Lily said loudly, pointing at a random spot by the door. "Someone's brought in a package of Filibuster's Fireworks, I'm going to -- to go give them detention! Prefect, you know -- I, ah -- g'bye!"

Sirius eyed Lily strangely as she quite hurriedly got up and walked away, and Davie turned to face him.

"Alright, ah -- I'll make this quick so you can refuse and I can get back to my dinner," Sirius said quickly; even just speaking with her, it was evident that his ego was still stinging quite badly. Davie, however, did not look nearly as awkward, drumming slightly on the table with the hilt of her spoon. "D'you wanna go to the dance with me?"

"Alright."

"Thought so. Sorry to waste your -- _hold on_," Sirius said, doing a very blatant double-take at Davie, who had just ruined his very evidently rehearsed response to a seemingly inevitable refusal. "Davie, are you feeling quite right? You recognize who you're talking to, don't you --"

"Are you trying to give me a chance to change my mind?" Davie laughed, giving Sirius' shoulder a light shove after taking a small bite of the bread pudding on her plate. "Didn't you want me to stop being bashful about being seen with you?"

"Davie, I could _kiss_ you --"

"Don't push it," she said, holding up a finger warningly, though her smile remained on her face. "I'd love to go with you, though."

"And I'd love for you to go with me as well," Sirius grinned haughtily. He looked up at James and shot a wink in his friend's direction before turning back to Davie. James then looked up at the doorway until catching Lily's eye -- she had been trying to blend into a group of fourth years playing Exploding Snap -- and gave a thumbs-up signal.

***

_February the Fourteenth, Nineteen-Seventy-Seven_

"You're going with _James?_" Davie asked in a shrill squeal as she and Lily were getting ready for the dance. "James Potter? Lily, is there something you aren't telling me? Is he your boyfriend?"

"Is Sirius _yours?_" Lily said, her voice dipping in playful sarcasm, and Davie fell quickly quiet. Lily dropped it immediately, of course, knowing full well that if she pushed Davie to admit anything about Sirius, it would give her free reign to do the same - not, Lily added to herself, that there was anything to admit. Needless to say, it was difficult for either to reconcile the fact that they were being escorted to a dance by a boy they had erstwhile loathed, and so, neither really tried to do it.

Meanwhile, outside, the boys had already taken up waiting for their respective dates, taking up the lazy red suede chaises situated in front of the fireplace. Remus had left just moments earlier to meet up with his date the Ravenclaw prefect in their year, and even Peter had managed to procure a date simply by riding on the others' coattails: a chubby but altogether not-unpleasant-looking Hufflepuff girl by the name of Heidi Popplefig.

"You don't think this is all a prank, do you, Prongs?" Sirius asked, kicking his feet up and feigning nonchalance, though the fact that for the past five minutes he had been fidgeting with the collar of his navy blue dress robes was a dead giveaway. "They aren't going to just stand us up --"

"Lily wouldn't do that. Dunno about Davie, though," James laughed, though the humor of the statement was presently lost on Sirius, who tugged on the edge of his collar even more.

"I hate dress robes," he grumbled lamely, shaking his head. "They always feel so -- oy! Are you even --" Sirius paused when he saw that James' gaze was directed to the top of the staircase, where Lily had emerged by herself from the girls' dormitory. James beamed like an idiot as she descended in a heather-grey set of chiffon dress robes that draped elegantly over one shoulder; her outstanding auburn hair was twisted neatly at the nape of her neck.

"G'luck, mate," James beamed, clapping Sirius on the back and leaving him at the chairs to offer Lily his arm, still grinning like an idiot. When James left, shooting his best friend a haughty wink at what he felt was a spectacular turn of luck, Sirius expected Davie to follow immediately after Lily -- she often did so, in all their years going to school together, after all. However, after a few seconds without her arrival, Sirius had very quickly taken to shuffling back and forth a bit. The two minutes that followed felt like two hours for Sirius, who was impatient enough to begin with. Had Davie already shimmied out the window and gone to meet a different escort? Was she --

The creak of the door hinge upstairs made Sirius nearly break his neck turning around to see Davie _finally_ emerge. Briefly, Sirius wasn't even sure he was looking at the right girl. As of late, Davie had looked so weary and frazzled and tired - and understandably so - that it felt almost surreal to see her looking so fresh and nearly glowing, clad in a set of periwinkle blue dress robes that fell lightly over her shoulders, dipping low on her back so that her shoulder blades were directly brushed by her long, dark hair.

"Sorry!" she said bashfully, trotting down the stairs to meet Sirius, who had quite eagerly walked over. "I was missing an earring, I must have dropped it under the bed -- I just left it behind when I couldn't find it," she said with an embarrassed laugh. Sirius grinned easily - thankfully, underneath the pretty robes, she was still the same Davie.

"Well," he said with slight hesitation, clearing his throat and trying to keep his attention focused on her face and not the newly visible expanse of ivory skin on her shoulders and back. "Better late than never, I suppose," he chuckled, then began fidgeting around in his pockets, pulling out a small fabric pouch. "Ah, here --"

From out of the pouch, he pulled out a necklace - a delicate chain attached to a jewel pendant of a snowflake that shimmered unlike anything that Davie, coming from a family of sufficient but overall modest means, had honestly ever seen.

"Didn't steal it or anything," Sirius felt the need to explain. "Bought it with the money mum put in my vault before cutting me off. I understand if you don't want to wear it or --"

"I -- I will," she said, slightly awkward. "Wear it, I mean."

"You're sure?" Sirius asked tentatively. "I mean, I know you don't want people staring, and --"

"Let them," Davie said, allotting Sirius a genuine smile - and by the look on his face, she couldn't have made him any happier than with those words. He beamed when Davie allowed him to fasten the clasp of the necklace onto her. "It's really beautiful, thank y--" her voice hitched slightly as the ends of his fingertips brushed the nape of her neck, and his smile ever so briefly turned into a smirk.

"And look at you!" Davie laughed, recovering quickly as she took a step away from Sirius. "We match wonderfully, look at us," she said, gesturing at his dress robes, then spinning around herself - it was, however, not completely by coincidence that Sirius had procured robes to compliment Davie's. He'd done a bit of flirting with Mary Macdonald a week beforehand in order to get the girl to peek into Davie's trunk and let him know the color of her robes.

"Shall we, then?" Sirius asked, offering his arm. When Davie accepted his arm, he finally felt himself breathing with some ease. As they approached the Great Hall, however, Sirius was well aware of the attention they were drawing as a pair, and he worried momentarily that she would change her mind and run off. That, he mused, would be a crying shame considering how wonderful she looked tonight - better, even, than when he had first seen her dolled up to attend the dance with Romnic. In fact, in his biased opinion, she looked even _better_ when she was on his arm than with the Dingbat.

It made Sirius feel even better when instead of her running off, her grip on his forearm tightened when Davie realized the looks she was receiving.

"Come on," Sirius said, leaning close to her ear and speaking quietly to avoid embarrassing her. "Once we get inside and find the others you don't even need to pay them any mind."

"Alright," Davie said with a nervous smile, still looking slightly uneasy at the attention. "C'mon, let's -- _ouch_!"

Davie wheeled around as much as she could while still link onto Sirius' arm; her smile immediately turned to a glare when she realized that Severus had grabbed her arm, tugging her backwards jerkily.

"I'd like to speak with you, Maddux. I'd --"

"Out of basic courtesy for the fact that I'm her escort," Sirius interrupted, awkwardly giving Davie another tug back towards him so that Davie looked like a gussied up sort of rag doll. "I think anything you have to say --"

"What do you know about courtesy, Black --"

"Sirius, I'm fine," Davie said resignedly, glancing at the door to the hall, being policed by Apollyon Pringle. "Just tell him I'm going to be following in a moment. I won't be late." Sirius glared briefly at the slime ball who had the audacity to borrow his date from him, then nodded, walking towards the Great Hall. Davie, meanwhile, crossed her arms, eyeing Snape with the utmost scrutiny

"Could we step outside?" Snape said stiffly, and Davie hesitantly obliged, following him out to the stairs right outside the Entrance Hall. "I just wanted to say that I was --"

"Sorry? That's what you brought me out here to say? _Sorry_? Since when do Death Eaters _apologize_ for anything?" Davie asked with light but still venomous condescension. "Well, I'm still an orphan who's going to spend the summer with my Squib of a great-uncle who collects aquarium fish for a living." She gave a weak laugh, swiping her hand over her forehead. "So, it's a bit of an exaggeration to say that I forgive you. But I've accepted it. What more is there to do anyway?" Davie paced downwards a few steps before turning back to face Snape.

"You know, when you started acting strange around me, I thought it was because you fancied me -- not because you _killed my parents_. Talk about getting signals crossed, hm?" she joked frailly. "And you know what else? I don't even think of you in that way. Not at all. But when I thought maybe you _did_, I actually -- you know what? Never mind --"

"Had a laugh, did you?" Snape sneered, not even sure why this conversation was getting a rise out of him. "Sat down to a butterbeer with Potter and Black about --"

"You think you know me _so_ well, don't you? Because all I am is Lily's best friend, everyone knows _everything_ about me!" retorted in a shrill voice - in the back of her mind she noticed that this was a tone of voice she really had only used on Sirius. "I thought for the _tiniest_ instant that if you'd asked me I'd have maybe, _maybe_ said yes!"

"You think I'm as thick as your friends, don't you?" Snape snarled. "You may have deluded yourself into thinking yourself so desirable that a no one such as myself could not help but be enthralled by your feminine wiles. But don't be mistaken, I _don't_ give a damn about you, Maddux - you or anyone. You know nothing about me, and if you'd been in that building, Merlin knows I'd have killed you too. And you have Sirius Black wrapped around your little finger. You expect me to believe --"

"I thought you were _intelligent_ and _interesting_! I thought you had _depth_!" Davie laughed, gesticulating almost uncontrollably with her arms and frankly looking slightly insane. "But Severus, with the sorts of secrets you're keeping, that's more _depth_ than I expected."

Severus was practically stupefied when he saw that Davie's eyes were tearing up, as if, Severus mused, she actually cared what he said to her. Shaking her head, she stalked back up the stairs and into the school, knocking past Severus sharply. Severus, however, could not bring himself to move. Up until then, he had never really thought much of Davina Maddux, one way or another. She simply, in his mind, was nothing special. He certainly did not particularly care for her, not in any way that compared to the deep-seated desire he had for her best friend - he certainly had no right to call Lily _his_ best friend anymore.

But Davie had always been around, had never been horrible to him the way others were. She was certainly not his first choice, but she respected him, had even admired him, treated him with dignity, and now even she regarded him with the utmost loathing.

***

"I don't like this," Sirius said irritably, swirling his glass of pumpkin juice as he stood around with Lily and James, waiting for Davie to arrive in the Great Hall. "D'you see, Prongs? Snivelly _grabbed_ her. Merlin, if I hadn't sworn I wouldn't give people any extra reason to stare, they'd be _staring_ at his severed --"

"Sirius, shush, you'll only humiliate yourself." Lily chided. "Look, she's coming now, don't make her feel any worse."

"Sorry," Davie said, stepping up next to Sirius and, to his surprise, immediately taking his arm, holding firmly as though she actually _needed_ his support as she stood. Just this act moved him to immediately face her. "I didn't mean to take so --"

"You've been crying?" he asked suspiciously, leaning dotingly over her. "Snivelly made you cry? Where'd he crawl off to? I'll hex him to --"

"Sirius, I'm sure there's an explanation," Lily interrupted sharply. "Sniv -- I mean, Severus would never --"

"It's _nothing_," Davie said in a short, very final-sounding tone, though Sirius looked nowhere close to being appeased by this. "Can we not argue? Sirius -- please," she tugged a bit on his arm, but he continued darting his head around, trying to spot Snape in the corridors. Davie thought for a moment, then added, "Sirius, let's dance, yeah?"

That, it would appear, was so unexpected from Davie that Sirius was distracted from the conversation at hand. Grinning a little goofily, he took Davie's hand and brought her towards the dance floor, placing his pumpkin juice down.

As it would turn out, Sirius Black was a bit of a clumsy dancer, though this did not deter Davie from dancing with him in the slightest. In fact, she found it slightly refreshing that Sirius Black was actually _bad_ at something - Merlin knew, Davie mused, that he had nearly everything else.

"Careful," Davie laughed, holding his hands and mirroring his somewhat silly rocking motions that looked a bit like unpolished swing dancing. "You might take an eye out carrying on this way."

"You don't really mind, do you?" Sirius laughed haughtily, putting his arms around Davie's waist and dropping her into a clumsy sort of dip. The intention, however, was not lost as Davie wrapped her arms around his neck. Indeed, everyone seemed to be staring at them--

--and Davie, quite frankly, did not care in the least.

"Well," James said, spotting them on the dance floor where he was dancing rather tamely with Lily, didn't seem to terribly mind being at the dance with Potter. "They look happy - I daresay we've succeeded."

"We make a good team, Potter, but don't go spreading the word around," Lily assented calmly.

"Hm," James nodded nonchalantly, though he was inwardly rejoicing. It would appear that more than one Marauder had come closer to the girl of their dreams tonight.

***

"You sure everything's alright?" Sirius asked in a muffled voice - by now, the music played in the hall had shifted to slow music, to which Davie's sore feet were endlessly thankful; more than half of the couples in attendance had retired for the evening. Davie's head was rested placidly on Sirius' shoulder, her body swaying close to his. "Because -- Snivellus might still be sneaking around somewhere, I could still --"

"Sirius," she chided, squeezing his shoulder. "Let's not talk about -- about _that_, alright? I'm fine -- I'm having a wonderful time, and I don't want to ruin it by talking about him."

"Fine by me," Sirius chuckled throatily, contentedly resting his head against hers. Even considering they had been in a hot, crowded room for hours, she smelled… pleasant. Like cinnamon sugar and clean linens, he mused, though if Davie had known that she was being associated with laundry and a pastry topping, she would have perhaps been not entirely pleased. Not thinking much at all, Sirius leaned over and brushed his lips against Davie's temple. "I'm glad you got over yourself enough to come with me tonight."

"And I'm quite glad _you_ got over yourself enough to ask me," Davie laughed quietly. "Even though almost all of the girls in the room have been staring at me like they want to kill me now. I swear, you mark my words -- tomorrow morning before I even _get_ to Slughorn's classroom, ten hexes, straight in the face."

"Well," Sirius said, looking upward and feigning deep thought - Davie pulled back and looked at him curiously. "If your safety is compromised, I could walk you to class - every class, if necessary --"

"That's boyfriend stuff!" Davie interrupted with an incredulous laugh. "That's not where things are with us, is it?"

"No," Sirius said stiffly, forcing a smile onto his face, though inwardly he felt as though Davie had just kicked him in the stomach. "No, I suppose it isn't."

***

_A/N's_

_Poor Sirius! One step forward, two steps back!_

_To __**xc1016**__, thank you for favoriting the story and I hope you continue reading! And thanks __**noshbucket1018 **__for all your reviews, and taking the time to send them all at once! Please keep them coming!_

_I also noticed at the top of some of my chapters, the chapter numbers were wrong, so I went through and fixed them. That's all the notes I have for now! Cheers!_


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter Nine**

_February the Fifteenth, Nineteen-Seventy-Seven_

"This is a _disaster!_" Lily fumed, having grabbed Davie by the wrist in the hallway and yanked her into an empty classroom, looking absolutely mortified. It was the morning after the ball, and the aftermath was, indeed, more than Lily was pleased to deal with. "Now everyone thinks I'm dating James --"

"Aren't you?"

Lily wheeled around, facing her friend and looking scandalized - her bright green eyes glared pointedly at the dark-haired girl. "I only went to the ball with him because - _as friends - _we decided to work together to make sure you would go with Sirius!"

"Oh, just friends!" Davie said, holding her hands up defensively as she spoke. "Just friends, when this time last year you wanted James Potter _dead_ --"

"I did not!" Lily retorted indignantly, though upon even brief scrutiny, she paused as though she'd just been doused in cold water. "I'm - I'm able to _tolerate_ him now. We're friends. We're not like you and Sirius," she added loftily, shifting the conversation away from herself. "You're all over one another and laughing and --"

"Well, he's never asked me to be his girlfriend --"

"_Yet!_" Lily huffed, crossing her arms. "He hasn't asked you _yet_!"

"Well, I bet James asks you _first_."

Momentarily, both girls could do nothing except stare one another down until finally, Lily sighed, shaking her head and leaning back against the edge of a nearby desk. "You can't tell anyone that I -- I _sort of _fancy him. Only a little bit," Lily mumbled grudgingly - and Davie was surprisingly less excited than she expected to be when Lily had admitted it; did that mean she was expected to admit something too? "If anyone knew -- I do have principles. He goes against --"

"Lily," Davie interrupted, laughing quietly. "Are you mad? _You're_ my best friend, who else would I tell? Besides," she shrugged, glancing over her shoulder as though to make sure no one else could be present. "We're _even_."

And with that, Lily finally breathed a bit easier, and the two girls walked pleasantly to their classes.

***

_March the Fifth, Nineteen-Seventy-Seven_

"Davie," Lily chided, rubbing her temple lightly at her friend's stubbornness. "You don't need to take Ancient Runes to be an Auror."

"But it's my favorite class," Davie whined piteously, yanking a piece of parchment out of Lily's hands. The pair sat in a booth in the Three Broomsticks looking over the forms they had been given earlier that day on which were to write the classes they were selecting to take in their seventh and final year of school, pending passing marks.

"Davie, you're going to be the only one taking the class --"

"I'm going to be in Runes."

Both girls looked up at the sound of a male voice to find Severus Snape standing next to their table, his Slytherin friends standing a few yards away. Lily narrowed her eyes and turned her eyes away from him, while Davie simply pursed her lips, continuing her conversation with Lily.

"You know, you're absolutely right," she said in a careless tone. "Runes is a _terrible_ idea. It won't be of any use when I become an _Auror_ anyway."

Snape lingered momentarily, trying to catch Lily's eye and failing - realizing this, he quickly departed without another word, returning to his Slytherin companions - a group that included Avery, Mulciber, and to Davie's chagrin, Romnic Digby, who spared his ex-girlfriend a glance as well.

"Bothering you again?" Sirius asked gravely, striding over to the girls' table ahead of his friends just in time to shoot Snape a nasty glance, and though he hadn't overheard the conversation, he noticed the strained expression on Davie's face as the boys settled into the booth with the girls. "Davie, I'll tell you again - just say the word, and I'll hex him to pieces before you can --"

"Can we drop it?" she said quickly - Sirius glanced at Lily, who simply shrugged; even she didn't know why Davie acted so strangely about Snape. Davie, however, was more than willing to follow her own advice as she leaned over Sirius to address Remus, who was sitting next to him.

"It's the fifth, isn't it?" Davie asked quietly. "Due to be checking up on Grams tonight, aren't you?"

"Mm," Remus nodded quietly - it was clear that the full moon was quite close, as he was looking quite pale and sickly today as was common when his transformations neared. "Could we go outside for a bit of air? I'm not feeling so well."

"Let's," Lily nodded sympathetically, nudging James who in turn nudge Peter to get out of the seat. All six of them, not knowing they were being followed by one solitary figure, proceeded outside, walking onward until they reached a fenced hill overlooking the Shrieking Shack. Lily transfigured a pile of leaves into a picnic blanket which they laid out as a sitting-spot.

"Sirius," Davie said, picking at the sleeve of his robes as she sat down next to him. "These don't look like the robes of a teenager who's just been disinherited. Are they new?" she asked curiously.

"Indeed, they are," he chuckled, adjusting his collar unnecessarily. "Bought them with a gift from my Great-Uncle Alphard. Smart man, knew my mum was completely batty and left me a massive inheritance --"

"Inheritance?" Lily gaped. "So -- he _died? _Aren't you sad? Aren't you in _mourning_ --"

"Well, I haven't seen the man since I was about ten, I couldn't even tell you what color his hair was," Sirius laughed nonchalantly, waving away Lily's concern. "But bless 'im to bits, my vault in Gringotts might need to be expanded thanks to him. I'm considering buying an island -- D'you want one too, James? Davie?" he joked.

"I'll settle for a lifetime supply of fudge and Chocóballs -- _mm!_" Davie laughed excitedly, thinking of the fruit crème-filled sweets that she favored from Honeydukes. She leaned back against Sirius as she laughed, and he had no problem whatsoever putting his arm around her rather cozily. While the two were preoccupied laughing with one another, James glanced knowingly at Remus and Lily as he nodded toward the pair, while Peter looked quite out of place indeed, as he really wasn't too involved in what was happening to begin with.

The six of them sat outside in the pleasantly early spring weather for a good while, at least an hour or so, which culminated in James and Sirius splitting an entire pack of Drooble's Best Blowing Gum between themselves and starting a contest of who could blow a bigger bubble.

"Oh, don't be a sore loser," Davie laughed, helping Sirius pick the bright pink flecks of gum out of his hair as they prepared to head back to the school - it was still fairly early, but it was understood among all of them that Remus obviously had other plans this evening. "C'mon," Davie said, tugging on Sirius' arm. "You need to get some rest before --"

"You go on ahead, Davie," Sirius said, his eyes shooting briefly towards a rustling sound he had heard in a nearby cluster of trees. "Go on -- I'll be right along."

Davie shrugged, then followed the others down the hill, leaving Sirius seemingly alone. Sirius, however, gazed back towards the trees once he was sure the others had gone. He picked up a rock and chucked it in that direction.

"Wotcher, Snape!" he called out as the pale boy jumped out to avoid being hit. Sirius' voice was deceptively cordial, hiding the fact that at the moment, the sight of Severus Snape not only brought out the troublemaker in him. It made his blood boil. "You probably think we're a bunch of loons for liking it out here - yards away from the, ah -- _most haunted spot in all of Britain_, I heard it was."

"I've not thought any better of you since the moment I met you," Snape sneered. "So we needn't bother --"

"It's not really _haunted_, you know. The boys and I, we go out there _quite _often," Sirius continued, twirling his wand lazily between his fingers with a thoughtful look on his face. "There's a way inside, if you'd like to see what happens inside for yourself."

"W-why would you tell me?" Snape hissed, slowly resting his hand on the handle of his own wand at the sight of Sirius holding hiss, though his expression gave away the fact that Sirius had piqued his interest.

"Simple," Sirius grinned, beginning to stalk back and forth in a short beeline towards Snape. "It's no secret that I fancy Davie quite a bit. And you've been bothering her, _quite a bit_ -- so I'd very much appreciate if you would leave her alone, that's all. You can consider this a peace offering."

"You're a conceited git," Snape said flatly. "But -- fine. I'm indifferent about Maddux, so it's not even a fair trade for you --"

"_Excellent_," Sirius said with a disarming, toothy grin, walking over and clapping a hand on Snape's shoulder. "So, you know the Whomping Willow…"

***

"Ohh," Davie said quietly, leaning at the windowsill of the common room window which overlooked the side of the grounds that played host to the Whomping Willow tree that had been especially placed on campus for the sake of facilitating Remus' monthly transformations. "I'm glad it's clear out tonight," she said breathily, glancing over her shoulder briefly at Lily, who was standing directly behind her and staring out the window as well. Ever since they had both known about Remus, they had made a habit of standing at the common room window every month once they were reasonably sure everyone else in Gryffindor tower was sleeping.

"There -- there's Wormtail, I suspect," Davie said as the arms of the tree immediately stopped flailing - they were too far away to see clearly, but this most likely meant that the tiny rat known as Peter Pettigrew had reached the knot at the bottom of the tree. Moments later, a large shaggy dog and a stag ran down the passageway as well, with an empty space between them that must have been Remus underneath James' Invisibility Cloak.

Once the boys had managed to all get through the secret passageway that led to the Shrieking Shack, Davie stepped away from the windowsill, where Lily now took a seat.

"I always worry people are going to see them out there," Lily said, in a hushed voice, looking away from the window and towards Davie, who faced her, and consequently, still faced the window. Her next words would show that Lily's fears were not unfounded.

"Lily --" she said in a voice that was so tight that it was almost a squeak; her face paled quickly. "Lily, look, it's Severus!"

Lily turned back to the window quickly, just in time to see another figure enter the passageway under the Whomping Willow; the girls glanced at one another quite terrified, knowing they couldn't possibly do anything to stop him from their distance. Davie was so shaken that she lacked the wherewithal to even wince as Lily's grip on her arm tightened like a vice.

After a few tense moments that felt like hours, the girls let out a simultaneous breath when Snape was dragged back out of the passage by James Potter - the boys were exchanging punches and jabs even now. In an instant, it appeared, Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall had rushed onto the scene still in their nightclothes, attending immediately to Snape who had a few minor bruises and cuts. When Sirius emerged from the hole - Remus was obviously still in the Shrieking Shack - the professors looked at them harshly, grabbed them all, and began dragging them back towards the castle.

"Davie, come on," Lily said in a very serious tone. "If we run to the Entrance Hall right now --"

No further explanation was necessary for Davie to agree. Still in their dressing robes and slippers, the girls ran out of the portrait hole, down the moving staircases, and into the Entrance Hall just as the others were arriving,

"Come on, Prongs, I was just having a laugh with him!" Sirius laughed loudly, leaning across Professor McGonagall's grasp and gesturing with his free arm towards James, who still looked absolutely livid. "I would have --"

"YOU FILTHY, DISGUSTING PIECE OF --" Snape roared, leaping out of Professor Dumbledore's grasp and lunging at Sirius, who had his fist raised and ready to let Snape have what he felt was coming to him. It was James who grabbed the back of Snape's robes, yanking him backwards away from Sirius, and Severus wheeled around, glaring at James as though he were considering one-by-one the ways he could be skinned alive. Dumbledore put a hand up to halt James, then looked at Severus gravely.

"That," he said, his eyes peering out from his spectacles, "is no way to regard a colleague who has just saved your life, Severus --"

"HE DIDN'T SAVE MY LIFE!" Snape roared. "HE DIDN'T -- I'LL KILL --"

"What's _happening_?" Lily said shrilly, rushing onto the scene first; Davie had run momentarily into Peeves and had only just reached the top of the staircase as Lily reached the bottom. Interrupting, however, turned out to be a bit of ill judgment on Lily's part when the boys all launched into simultaneous explanations.

"We were only looking out for Moony like always! I thought --"

"Black was trying to _murder_ me! He told me about the passage and --"

"It was a joke! If Snape hadn't been nosy enough to listen to the advice, shoving his drippy nose where it doesn't --"

"ENOUGH!" Professor Dumbledore bellowed, effectively silencing the lot of them. "In simplest, Mr. Black informed Mr. Snape about the tunnel below the Whomping Willow. Mr. Potter managed to pull him back, but not before --"

"LUPIN IS A WEREWOLF!" Snape yelled above everyone else's voices, and he wheeled towards Lily, who was making clear effort not to even make eye contact with him. "EVERY MONTH! THAT'S WHERE --"

"We know, Severus, we _all_ know! Everyone but _you _knew because it's none of _your_ business!" Lily said shrilly, speaking to him for the first time since the previous year before turning to James; her expression shifted immediately. The level of admiration in her eyes seemed to grow and swell until it rivaled in magnitude the expression of loathing in Snape's. "But -- you saved him, Potter? James? You hate him, why did you --"

"I had to," James said, scratching the back of his neck and adjusting his glasses. "Wormtail stayed behind with Moony, I made sure. I just couldn't let it go that far --"

"Good _show_, Potter," Snape interrupted venomously. "The hero yet again --"

"That is _quite_ enough," Dumbledore said, silencing them yet again. "There are no _heroes_ in this incident. But you do owe Mr. Potter your life. That being said," he said, glancing around at everyone else in the vicinity, "the lot of you are in _very_ real trouble. You, Mr. Black, should be glad you are not being expelled. You boys will _each_ lose fifty points for your houses. And," he said, glancing behind him, "ten each for Miss Evans and Miss Maddux.:

"Ten?!" Davie piped shrilly, speaking up for the first time in the situation. "What are we getting in trouble for? We didn't know anything --"

"_Miss Maddux_," Professor McGonagall said pointedly, "as noble as your intentions were in rushing to the aid of your friends, it is _no_ excuse for wandering the halls at night --"

"We weren't _wandering_!" Davie retorted, mouth hanging open in disbelief and outrage. "We haven't been out of our common room for more than five minutes --"

"Do not for me to deduct five points for your cheek," McGonagall said, raising her eyebrows severely. "Back to your dormitories. _Immediately_."

***

"Sirius!" Davie hissed angrily, stopping him from going up the stairs to his dormitory once they had all walked in very tense silence back to Gryffindor Tower. "What were you thinking? You could have killed him! You --"

"Killed him!" Sirius roared, wheeling around and throwing his arms up so abruptly that it made Davie jump backwards. "It's a bloody shame I didn't! I was hoping Moony would tear him limb from --"

"_Padfoot_," James said as he climbed through the portrait hole as well, with Lily close behind, looking winded and rather awestruck at the fact that _she_ had. "You think Moony would fancy knowing he'd killed someone? You know how terrible he feels to begin with --"

"Well, he didn't kill anyone, so pull your foot out of your --"

"What'd he ever do --"

"HE HURT DAVIE!" Sirius continued, jabbing his finger towards Davie as he continued yelling at James, causing Davie to pale considerably. "I don't know what he's been doing, but every time Davie even speaks with that oaf, she comes back in tears --"

"I'm not your girlfriend!" Davie yelled shrilly - by this point, a handful of other students were peering out of their dormitory doors to see what the commotion was about. Sirius turned around, seething with fury that for the first time was targeted _towards_ Davie.

"I'm _not _your girlfriend, and you don't need to do _stupid_ things like this because of me," Davie said angrily as Sirius stalked up to her. "I'm _not_ your girlfriend, you're _not_ my boyfriend, and --"

"_Not_," Sirius interrupted, his voice a very unfamiliar low snarl, "_for lack of trying._"

And with that, he knocked past her, almost knocking her over as her walked upstairs to his dormitory and slamming the door hard behind him - a very shocked, enraged Davie stood at the bottom of the stairs, and a very dumbstruck Lily Evans stared with confusion between her best friend and James Potter -- had someone slipped something into the pumpkin juice tonight?

"You oughta go back upstairs," James spoke up, scratching the back of his neck in frustration. "I'll go make sure Padfoot doesn't break anything."

"What about Remus?" Lily asked in concern, glancing out the window as if to confirm that their friends were still outside.

"He'll be alright -- I'll explain everything to him in the morning."

***

_Mid June, Ninety-Seventy-Seven_

"Davie, please this is all my fault," Remus said, trudging along behind Davie as the Gryffindors exited their Potions class; it was practically summer, and the Potions dungeon was balmy and musty and none too conducive to cooling one's temper. On this day in particular, Davie had spent the entire class period sitting next to none other than Romnic Digby, on the same side of the classroom as the rest of the Slytherins - she made a point of shooting Sirius a glance as she sat down. Sirius, in turn, simply looked away and spoke to James, masking his obvious distaste for the situation with jeers about Davie's choice of company.

"Davie," Remus persisted, finally able to catch up to her completely as she got caught behind a large crowd on one of the changing staircases. He snagged his arm "Come on, please -- how many months has it been?"

"It's not your fault, Remus, it's his," Davie said nonchalantly. "And it's certainly not _my _fault that he doesn't care that he's making an absolute fool of himself and I don't want to be associated with him."

"But Davie," Remus continued, "you know, he put a lot on the line for you - he could have been expelled! Even if it was a stupid idea and he went about it in absolutely the wrong way, he deserves a chance --"

"And I'd be glad to give it to him," Davie said, and momentarily, an expression of relief spread onto Remus' tired face. "_When_ he asks for it himself."

"How about --" Remus said, scratching his neck in exasperation as he tried to find another way around the situation. "Well, where are you staying this summer? Your uncle lives in London, doesn't he? Near Sirius - he could come and visit --"

"Actually," Davie interrupted, "I'm staying with Lily this summer, she's only just heard back from her parents about it and they seem lovely --"

"Well, won't you just write him?" Remus said, taking another swipe at trying to force a reconciliation between all of them. In these recent months, Davie had been wandering off without Lily slightly more often, who had now taken to hanging around Remus, who still felt guilty about being the cause of their falling out. Even Sirius and James had hardly been speaking; Peter was the only one who retained some level of normalcy, following James around unrelentingly.

Davie sighed, shaking her head remorsefully. "I'm sorry, Remus," she said, looking slightly sad herself. "I'm giving Sirius the summer to learn how to put his pride in its place, that's all."

***

_A/N_

_And again -- poor Sirius can't catch a break with Davie, can he? Poor thing! And poor Snape too, I suppose. Even I can't decide whether or not I want to have complete sympathy for him._

_Anyway, more feedback is always appreciated, but in any case, I'm glad that people are reading; I check the traffic on the story, and just knowing you guys are reading is encouraging, so I'll keep writing. Feedback would just give me more of a nudge, tee-hee. Anyway, cheers!_


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter Ten**

_June the Twenty-Fourth, Nineteen-Seventy-Seven_

"You know what I think?" Lily said as she helped Davie put pillowcases on the pillows of the cot they had set up in Lily's room so the girls could share the way they did. The Evans family - save for Lily's sister, Petunia - was quickly charmed by her, and the way she was so impressed with every little thing in their home, despite their humble means. For one thing, Davie had certainly never seen a Muggle refrigerator, and always accepted a proffered snack that came from the refrigerator, even if only to verify for herself that it was in fact cold.

"I don't think Sirius fancies you -"

"That's relieving," Davie said stiffly, "because I don't -"

"I think he _loves_ you," Lily continued, and Davie's eyes went wider, if that were even possible. "Just think about it," Lily said when she noticed the stupefied expression on her best friend's face. "Would he have taken the trouble of -"

"No, thank you," Davie said, plopping down on her bed and beginning to rifle through her belongings in order to get settled. She wanted to simply enjoy and appreciate the fact that she was here with her best friend instead of with her batty great-uncle with several hundred fish living in his house. The Evans' home was warm and welcoming, save for Lily's sister, Petunia, who judging by her expression always was subjected to a terrible stench that no one else appeared able to smell. "I don't _want_ to think about it."

She sighed, looking up and out the bedroom window - the little town called Spinner's End wasn't at all luxurious, and there was certainly nothing magical about it, but it was pleasantly homely, and Davie liked it just fine.

"Do you think I could go for a walk? Have a look around?" Davie asked curiously - Lily looked confused, considering there was really very little to do in the neighborhood, but she nodded. After some help from Lily picking out a set of Muggle clothes (which, Davie noticed, were a bit long for her, considering Lily was slightly taller) Davie stepped out the door and shuffled down the cobblestone streets until she found herself strolling by a park - a quaint sort of place with old swings and teeter-totters and clusters of branchy, rather unkempt trees. The familiar face she found _n _that park, however, would turn out to be an even more unwelcome sight than Sirius Black.

"Severus?" she snapped incredulously when she noticed the boy standing under a tree, looking rather sour, but not expecting to be interrupted. "What are you - ah, right," she said, remembering when Lily had long ago mentioned that they had lived together ever since they were children. This was probably why Lily had been so happy to have Davie over for the summer, so she would have someone to keep her company and keep her _away_ from Severus Snape.

"What are you waiting for out here? For Lily?" she asked in a knowing tone. "Because you _love_-"

"You can't say a word," Severus said, overcoming the surprise of seeing Davina Maddux in Spinner's End. "I don't need pity now that she's become a member of the James Potter fan club -"

"Pity! Why would I pity you? Why would I _help_ you?" Davie asked, crossing her arms and taking only a few steps closer., her eyes narrowed hostilely into slits. "You're in love with Lily and by Merlin, I could tell her -"

"Fine!" he seethed. "Go on then, so I can be as miserable as I've made you -"

"You're so full of yourself!" Davie said shrilly; it felt so unnatural for Severus Snape to be eliciting such an emotional reaction from her, and even more unnatural to be unable to draw her wand at a time like this, considering no one was allowed to see them use magic. "You think that outing your stupid little crush is nearly as bad as killing my mum and dad -"

"You were full of yourself to even think I'd fancy you," he said flatly, but the words themselves hit Davie hard; the expression on her face was somewhere between being heartbroken and enraged because he had just confirmed what Davie had believed for a long time: she was certainly not much of a catch compared to Lily Evans.

"You know, I always tried to be decent to you," Davie said, tears slowly gathering behind her eyes as the confrontation intensified. "Because I really did think you were interesting. I thought you and I might be friends - I always got so _angry_ with Sirius for being so hard on you, always said you didn't _deserve_ it," she rambled. "But you still managed to hurt me, just as much as you hurt Lily. Is this the way you treat all your friends? Call them names and - and kill their parents?'

"Now you're talking nonsense -"

"_No,_" Davie persisted. "Lily and I always stood up for you, even before got in with you little batch of - of mini Death Eaters. But I suppose you've picked whose respect matters, haven't you?"

"What's _supposed_ to matter?" Snape retorted angrily, looking away, anywhere except towards Davie and pressing the heel of his hand into his forehead as though he were trying to justify his treatment of Lily even to himself. "The opinion of two little girls I met in school or the rest of the world that'll respect me once they've seen what I'm capable of -"

"Listen, _you_ -" Davie hissed vehemently; Snape had been so distracted that he hadn't seen Davie striding up to him until she had interrupted him, shoving him hard by the shoulders so he stumbled backwards. "You think everyone else in the world is _so_ ignorant, everyone hates you, everyone's so _hard_ on you, and so selfish - look at you!" she gave him another hard shove so that he stumbled backwards into the trunk of a nearby tree, not so much because Davie was strong, but because he was so dumbfounded at her outburst. However, as he hit the hard surface of the tree, he winced, clutching at the back of his shoulder. When he moved his hand, he tried unsuccessfully to conceal the fact that his fingers were smudged in -

"Blood?" Davie asked in a hushed voice, her expression changing immediately as she reached out, yanking his hand towards her to confirm the sight for herself. "I didn't push you that hard -"

"They're not from you," he said flatly, pulling his hand away from Davie's grasp. He managed a brief glance at her eyes to find them full of emotion - not quite pity or mocking, but genuine sadness. Compassion, even. "Can you now get it through your thick skull why I'm desperate to remedy my - my lack of dignity?"

"Severus," she said quietly, glancing between his face and the slight smudge of blood on her hand she'd acquired from touching his. Just glancing at her, there was more genuine, focused concern in her eyes than he'd received from anyone, from Lily even.

"Lemme see," she said; Severus was lost for words. Davie sighed, sitting down in the grass next to the tree and giving his arm a tug, signaling her to sit next to him. "Take your shirt off -"

"You're mad," he replied flatly. "I'm not going to - you're still angry at me, what's the matter with you?"

"I _am_ angry," she conceded, her expression sour. "But you're bleeding and it makes the odds a bit uneven. It's distracting and not very honorable. Now, let me see."

Effectively dumbstruck, Severus unbuttoned his dingy collared shirt halfway, lowering it down past his shoulder blades. He grimaced when he heard her gasp - apart from one or two fresh, barely-healed cuts, still sticky with blood, the skin on his back was a latticework of scars of varying depth and darkness.

"Look at you, these aren't even cleaned up," Davie said stiffly, trying to maintain some semblance of harshness and disdain in her voice, though it was admittedly difficult to do. "Just - wait here. Don't do anything." Davie stood up, pulling a handkerchief out of her pocket and strolling over to the nearby drinking fountain to dampen the piece of cloth.

"Alright," she said, poising the wet kerchief over one of the cuts; her calm approach to the situation was surprising, so much so that Severus Snape was not sure that it wasn't simply deception. "This might hurt -"

"Worse than getting them to begin with, you think?" he retorted sarcastically.

"I was just _warning_ you," Davie snapped irately. "Now this is going to sting."

Severus let out a muffled noise when, as promised, the feeling of a wet cloth touching the wound gave a telltale twinge of pain, but surprisingly, Davie had no snide comment in return. She would never go so far as to say she understood him - in fact, she felt more puzzled by him than before now that she came to consider the fact that perhaps he had his reasons.

"You'd make a good Healer," he commented.

"You told me that. Years back," she said with a grudging laugh. "But, well - you know I'm not going to be a Healer."

"Once we're out of school we're going to be enemies. Worse enemies than we are now," Severus said flatly. "Don't get used to being kind to me. Down the road, I wouldn't allot you the same courtesy."

"Wouldn't dream of it," Davie said calmly, finishing up cleaning his wounds and tugging his shirt back up over his shoulders. "It's a pity we were never properly friends to begin with. I've never really been friends with someone like you."

* * *

"So Padfoot," James said, juggling a balled up pair of socks as he got to unpacking his things; he and Sirius had been able to make up shortly before the school year ended, and so things had regained some sort of normalcy when they were living in the Potters' house over the summer. "You going to write her?"

"Nope."

"Visit?"

"Nope?"

"Ignore her for the entire summer and sit around brooding like a pathetic git because she won't apologize to you?"

"Now you're onto it," Sirius said roughly, lounging back onto the daybed in James' room, lacing his fingers behind his head.

"So you're _not_ planning on writing her?" James asked. "So those pieces of parchment in your trunk that have '_To Davie_' written on the top, you were just practicing your penmanship?"

"She'd sooner feed it to her owl than read it, I'd rather not waste the parchment," Sirius said, twirling his wand between his fingers. There were times when he certainly didn't do a bad job of pretending not to care that Davie was not speaking to him.

"You're filthy, rich, mate, you could write her a novel a day and the price of parchment wouldn't make a nick on the balance of your vault in Gringotts," James pointed out, before his face curled into a smirk. "You think Romnic Digby is going to be writing her this summer?"

"He can go ahead!" Sirius said, chucking his wand at James' head; he simply laughed, shaking his head and catching it in one hand - his reflexes from playing Quidditch were, Sirius had to grudgingly admit, impeccable.

"You missed." he laughed, chucking the wand back at Sirius. "You know, I could write Lily. We've been alright lately," he said with a broad grin. "You know, maybe see if she'd give us a hand with her." James grinned when Sirius looked away, trying to hide a hopeful expression on his face.

"If that's what you get off on," he said noncommittally. "I know you'll write her anyway."

"Too right," James grinned, kicking off his shoes and leaning back on his own bed. "In fact- I think I'll do _just _that."

_A/N's_

_Another chapter! Very tiny this time around, and the next couple will be a bit short. The summer of seventy-seven will have one more chapter dedicated to it, and while it's nothing that's going to send the plot spinning, it will still hopefully be worth reading. Mostly just teeangers being teenagers for the next couple of chapters - but please do pay attention to the sort of things that go on in their seventh year, as there will be scattered mentions of things that will go on in the future. The happenings at school in their final year will be a bit hefty, to say the least._

_Thank you to **Padfoot'sPixie** __and __**cherryblossom2revenger** __for your reviews! Until next time, cheers!_


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter Eleven**

_August the Thirtieth, Nineteen-Seventy-Seven_

"Oy!" James yelled, pounding on the locked door to the washroom occupied by his best friend - his best friend who turned out to spend more time in the shower and on his hair than anyone else James knew. "Are you even _listening_?"

"Yeah, Hogsmeade. Tomorrow," Sirius said is a muffled voice that made it evident that he was brushing his teeth. "Supplies, letters arrive by owl post an hour ago. Anything else you'd like to add for me to recite, Prongs?"

"An hour! Good on you for remembering - you've been in there _since_ then, I was beginning to think you'd drowned," he said, slapping his palm onto the door one more time to go back to his room, pulling out the letter he had just received from Lily. He flopped onto his stomach on his bed, glancing at the door before unfolding the letter.

_James,_

_I've been well, thank you. Just waiting on my Hogwarts letter - still hoping on Head Girl, you know. You can let Sirius know that Davie's alright as well. I'm sure he's not asking but you know how they are, he's probably thinking about it nonetheless. _

_I hope we're still on for Diagon Alley, it would do Davie a whole lot of good to see everyone again, she's been acting a bit strange. I'll let Davie know as soon as I can, she's been a bit preoccupied this summer. Take care of yourselves, I don't want any of you not showing up because you've gotten into trouble, Potter._

_Always,_

_Lily_

James beamed as he reread the letter. _His_ letter. Lily Evans had been writing _him_ letters. This had certainly been, in his mind, a very _good_ summer.

* * *

"You look nice today," Lily said as Davie was brushing her hair in front of the mirror - she had only just gotten used to doing her hair the 'Muggle way' which entailed brushing it by hand, and ever since, she had acquired a certain vanity about it. "I did tell you we were leaving for Diagon Alley tomorrow, didn't I? To get our things?"

"Yeah, yeah, sure," Davie said in a pleasantly dismissive voice, putting in a pair of earrings from her mother, then adjusting the cowl neck of her sleeveless purple sweater that had been given to her my Mrs. Evans. "That's why I'm going to go see -"

"Severus," Lily said with an exasperated sigh. "You've been spending an awful lot of time with him this summer -"

"You used to spend a lot of time with him and I didn't say anything -"

"That was _before_," Lily said sourly. "Davie, I can't see why you're so friendly with him now that you know what he's like."

"He's been helping me read up on Charms - you know it's my worst mark, and he's really intelligent," she said, smoothing out the fronts of her black pants and avoiding her friend's gaze. The fact that she had in truth been spending an unusual amount of time with Severus Snape, with whom Lily had already had a terrible falling out, the same Severus Snape who himself had told Davie that he had no high opinion of her at all, was a slightly awkward point between the two friends. Lily, especially, tended to bring up the strangeness of the unlikely friendship, while Davie made particular moves to avoid such conversations.

"He's just - well. I don't know, it's not awkward. I don't have to try to impress him -"

"No one impresses him -"

"Exactly," she said, giving her hair another smoothing out. Lily sighed resignedly, shaking her head.

"Well, be home for dinner, at least?" Lily asked kindly, giving her friend's arm a gentle tug. "You're the only one in this entire house who will eat my mum's banana pudding desserts, even Dad won't even take more than two bites. I'm not sure she's ever going to let you leave us now."

"I'll be here," Davie laughed in relief that her friend was at least being accepting of the fact that she had come to be friends of some sort with Severus Snape over the summer. She had even inexplicably come to the point where she considered him a separate being entirely from the Severus Snape she hated and held responsible for the fact that she was an orphan and had no parents - she had come to believe that in all likelihood, her parents would have forgiven him by then.

Contentedly, she slipped on a pair of purple slippers and walked briskly down the stairs, and down the nearby cobblestone path. She continued walking until she reached a small, slightly muddy dammed creek at the emptier edge of town, which had in the past month or so become hers and Severus' chosen meeting-place.

"You've done yourself up a bit," Severus said coolly, having arrived a few minutes earlier. "Is there an occasion?""

"Well, I think so, anyway," Davie said brightly, clambering up the side of the short wall and having a seat, dangling her feet off of the edge towards the water. "We've gotten along for an entire summer."

"To what end?" Severus asked bluntly; he, too, had grown slightly comfortable around the girl though he only grudgingly admitted it. If it could be avoided, he didn't even mention it at all, really. It was clearly not the sort of friendship he had once had with Lily Evans in this very place, in Spinner's End as a child, but is was a friendship nonetheless. "We're not going to be friends after this summer, once we go back to school - we both know that. And it's our last year. Once we're out…"

"Hm." Davie nodded quietly. It was testament to the fact that they were nowhere near being _best_ friends, as there were many points of conversation that were taboo throughout the entire summer, which included life after school, Sirius Black, and James Potter. "It's a pity, though, isn't it? I do sort of enjoy spending time with you."

"To think if we had all been - been _Muggles_," he said distastefully; it almost physically tasted terrible in his mouth to suggest. "We might not have all become enemies to begin with."

"And to think," Davie mused, her gaze shifty, as though she were testing the waters, "you and Lily may never have fought and never have fallen out, and she'd never be on speaking terms with James Potter. They've been writing."

Now, Severus was silent. Davie sighed, bracing herself on her hands at the edge of the wall and leaning her weight on her arms. Severus glanced at her; she was, in his mind, nowhere near as beautiful as Lily Evans, but Davie was certainly not unattractive. She was amusing to be around, even if a bit excessively silly and whimsical for his taste. Compared to Lily Evans, Severus mused, Davina Maddux was a plethora of shortcomings: she was nowhere near as graceful, as poised, as naturally gifted -

"I was right, you know," Davie mused, kicking her feet over the edge and letting the heels of her shoe skim the top of the water. "You still are one of the most interesting people I've ever met."

"More interesting than Black?" Severus scoffed incredulously at even the thought of being considered anything except _slimy_, anything except _Snivelly_. Even Lily thought of him as nothing more than just another heartless, incorrigible, bigoted Slytherin. Because he _was_. "I highly doubt that."

Davie went quiet at the mention of Sirius' name. She had made careful effort to avoid speaking about him, to even avoid contacting him, the entire summer - granted, it had not been hard, considering he'd never tried contacting her either. Severus was just so much easier to be around, because there was nothing to worry about - as fatalistic as it seemed, they both knew their friendship was going to be short-lived, and so, they acted and spoke frankly with one another. At the age of seventeen, Davie didn't think much more about the reasoning. It would have been quite simpler to believe that perhaps she fancied Severus instead, but at the cusp of adulthood, Davie couldn't really bring herself to think that it was anything so simplistic.

"Sirius - well, he isn't very _interesting_, I don't think. Not in the same way," Davie said. "He's actually rather simple to understand." She wasn't sure whether she considered this simplicity a good or bad thing; the way he acted was something that Davie still did not feel compelled to try and understand.

"So he's a simpleton -"

"That's not what I _said_," Davie said sharply.

"You might as well ha- Merlin be _damned_!" Severus cursed suddenly when the sound of loud smacks on the concrete wall signaled a flurry of falling raindrops. Grabbing Davie by the wrist, he pulled her off of the wall and brought her to a cluster of trees, the same where they had first seen one another at the beginning of the summer. "I suppose I forgot to warn you that we get summer rains -"

He was cut short by Davie standing onto the toes of her sopping wet shoes and brushing her lips chastely against his.

It was only then that Severus Snape really considered that Davie actually _was_ a bit pretty, in a funny, child-like, wide-eyed sort of way, especially when she was sopping wet and terribly disheveled. He had no idea why she was kissing him, or why she even thought to do so - but the fact that she already had and could not undo it… it would all be forgotten by the next day when they left Spinner's End. What was there to lose?

Severus wrapped his arms around Davie's waist slightly awkwardly, pulling her close and kissing her soundly - he'd never done anything of the sort, but the fact that she didn't immediately pull away meant that he probably wasn't doing anything wrong. This was really nothing to do with him fancying Davie, but everything to do with Severus Snape still being a seventeen-year-old boy - he channeled years of being laughed at and rejected and humiliated into the act of kissing Davie. He felt vindicated, like he was spitting back in Sirius Black's face. He could almost see Black's angry face, imagine the sort of humiliation he would feel at the idea of _Snivellus _getting to Davie first. And…

Slowly and quietly, Davie laughed as she pulled away, looking down at her shoes. "So who were you pretending that I was?" she asked good-naturedly. Severus didn't look at all surprised that she had caught onto the fact that a part of his mind had enjoyed imagining he had been kissing Lily. A part of imagined the look on _James Potter's_ face instead Sirius Black. He wanted to get back at them _both_. Davie, of course, could not be angry either, as the action on her part had been more of a test than anything - not so much the kiss, but the way she felt afterwards.

There had been no culminating 'wow' after the initial thrill of the action on either end. Davie walked a few steps away, turning her back to Severus. "It's good that term's about to begin or I might have forgotten that we're going to be enemies in about a year or so."

She turned back to Severus, smiling sadly and shaking her head. "It's just a pity I couldn't have changed your mind. I know Lily would have been glad to hear it too," she pointed out before taking off back down the cobblestone path under the rain.

All the way down the street back to the Evans' home, Davie realized that even as she'd kissed Severus Snape, it had never solely been _about_ Severus at all. It had been a sort of experiment, a test of whether or not she had been able to forget about…

Davie panted slightly as she got back inside the house, kicking off her wet shoes at the door so they wouldn't track mud all over the Evans' floor. Immediately, Lily hurried downstairs at the sound of the door; from the kitchen, Lily's older sister, Petunia, glance with a glare before going back to helping Mrs. Evans cut vegetables for dinner.

"'_Tuney_ looks like she's about ready to chuck the cleaver at me," Davie pointed out with a snicker. "I suppose I shouldn't expect a goodbye present from her -"

"I've got it!" Lily said brightly, brandishing a letter towards her best friend. "Look - here, have a look!"

"Head Girl!" Davie said excitedly, glancing at the paper, then looking up to confirm - Lily had already pinned the gleaming badge onto her blouse. "Oh, think of it - my best friend, _Head Girl_! D'you think Remus is Head Boy?"

"No, it's James," Lily said quickly, before even really thinking the statement through. Davie, who had placed the letter down and was pulling her wet hair out of her face, looked up questioningly. "Oh, well," Lily began hesitantly, realizing what she had just blurted out. "We've been writing over the summer, you remember, and he got his letter yesterday -"

"I _see_," Davie said with an impish smirk. She briefly looked as though she were going to ask something else - Lily knew without even being told that she had considered asking how Sirius had been over the summer, but quickly thought better of it. "Well - shall I go get changed for dinner?"

* * *

_A/N's_

_I'm hoping not to have too many tomatoes thrown at me for including a Davie/Severus kiss in there - and poor Davie, being thought of as a 'plethora of shortcomings'. I had a couple messages saying that they thought Davie's self-confidence issues about being in Lily's shadow were unrealistic, but honestly - I was a teenager not too long ago. Teenagers are pressure-cookers full of insecurities, and dealing with them is one of the most beautiful parts of growing up, don't you think?_

_In any case, next chapter, we'll no longer be in Spinner's End, and we'll get into the nitty-gritty of seventh year, which will have more chapters dedicated to it than the other years spent at Hogwarts. More action, more drama, more - well, more of everything._

_To __**Jokegirl**__, yup! The story finishes up all the way in Deathly Hallows, but it won't be that epic - there's going to be a fairly hefty time-jump sometime soon. The story is still going to be pretty long, granted, but it won't be a 100-chapter epic or anything._

_To __**myinnervoice**__, I'm glad you're enjoying so far! I'm trying really hard to make all of the characters seem like real teenagers coming into themselves, because I think it's really interesting reading characters who develop over the course of a story, so I thought try my hand and writing something like that myself. Thank you for your support and feedback._

_Thank you to __**happybrokensmile**__ as well for favoriting!_

_Also, to any readers I have that haven't made their presence know, thank you for reading! Until next time, cheers!_


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter Twelve**

_August the Thirty-First, Nineteen-Seventy-Seven_

"Have you seen how many books are on this list, it's ludicrous!" Davie murmured, staring at her Hogwarts letter instead of watching where she was walking as she and Lily entered Diagon Ally; Lily had to occasionally yank her friend out of the way before she ran into something - particularly a very young red-haired boy by the name of Charlie Weasley who was zipping around the cobblestone streets on the mini-broomstick his mother and father had bought for him - for which Davie would only murmur half-focused thanks before going back to glancing over the list of books and supplies she would need for their final year at school. "You know, even though I'm taking fewer classes -"

"You're preparing for NEWTs and you'll be completely exhausted, you've said it a million times now," Lily laughed. "I'm starting to think I've been a little too good of an example on you, honestly. Hold on a second!" Lily interjected when she noticed that Davie was starting to walk towards the entrance of Flourish and Blotts' bookshop. "I, ah - didn't I tell you about Florean Fortescue's? We're meeting the boys."

"Oh, right!" Davie said brightly, folding her letter and tucking it away back onto the traveling bag she had slung over her shoulder. "Let's - _hold on_!" she said, realizing what Lily had just said. "The _boys_?"

"We were planning to meet up the entire summer, I just - well, I forgot to tell you." Lily explained bashfully. "I never really wanted to show you any of James' letter because they all mentioned Sirius and I didn't want you to be angry."

Davie sighed and looked up towards Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour, particularly at the quaint little round tables situated outside; she gave a slight huff when she caught sight of the back of a familiar head of wavy black hair.

"Could you go on ahead, Lils?" she asked hesitantly, creasing her supplies list out of nervous habit. "I - I'll only be a moment, I'll catch up."

Sighing in defeat, Lily nodded and went over to join the boys seated at the table - Sirius, for one, looked surprised to see Lily (apparently, James had not informed him either) and a strange jerking motion he made with his neck made it obvious that it took conscious effort to look around and see whether or not anyone else had come with her.

"Hullo," Lily greeted them all in a slightly glum tone as she took a seat between James and Remus; Sirius sat at the other side of the table, and evidently, Peter had not arrived - he had spent the summer feeling ill with a mild case of Dragonpox and had been out of touch for nearly the entire time. "Davie's - well, I suspect she's somewhere nearby. I'm not sure where she went."

"Don't tell me she's still upset with Padfoot," James groaned, shaking his head and ruffling his hair out of habit. Lily rolled her eyes at the action, though a trace of a smile still on her face was a sign that she didn't find it nearly as irksome as she had in years past. "You'd think an entire summer would be more than enough time to mull things over a bit -"

"If she doesn't want to come over here, I don't really care," Sirius grumbled, his hand twitching reflexively into a fist. "She can do whatever she likes. Good riddance." Everyone else at the table exchanged wary glances.

"He's only saying that," Remus muttered to Lily. "He was only just asking about her, right before you arrived -"

"_Surprise_!"

They all looked up at the sound of a familiar voice to find Davie walking from _inside _the ice cream shoppe, with five tiny bowls of ice cream trailing along in the air behind her. Using her wand, she shooed them all to the table where the others were sitting, and they landed with high-pitched clinks. She then quite hesitantly sat down in the only seat that had been left available, situated between Remus and Sirius.

"Hullo," she said carefully, giving Sirius a brief sidelong glance.

"Hm," Sirius responded, not looking at her or the ice cream on the table. Davie glanced at Lily with an expression of discouragement, but Lily simply jolted her eyebrows and nodded insistently towards Sirius, suggesting that she keep trying.

"'S your favorite," Davie said, reaching over and grabbing one of the tiny sundaes and placing it directly in front of Sirius with a small clatter. "Strawberry caramel."

"I never told you that was my favorite," he said, trying not to be obvious as he glanced very briefly at the ice cream in front of him - Sirius Black quite possibly loved food more than anything in the world. Except Quidditch. And Filibuster's Fireworks. And -

"It's what you always get for me when we're in Hogsmeade and I know it's not _my_ favorite -"

"Well," he scoffed sarcastically. "You just know everything, don't you?"

"More or less, I would say."

The tension was thick and torturous as at Davie's last comment, Sirius' face twitched somewhat unreadably. An eyebrow, his nose, the corner of his mouth … and thankfully, he began to laugh.

"Chocolate, hazelnut, and banana," he said matter-of-factly, picking up another bowl and placing it down in front of Davie. "You thought you could get one up on me, you're wrong, Davie. I know it's your favorite." He finally managed to look at Davie, and he grinned charmingly as he noted that she looked rather pleased to see him.

"Thank _Merlin_," James said, shooting his hand out and grabbing an ice cream for himself; Remus and Lily soon followed suit. "If you two weren't going to make up already we were about to shove these sundaes in your faces."

After finishing, the five of them finally set of to Flourish and Blott's - Sirius shot James and Remus a smug grin when Davie immediately looped her arm through his, and James, not to be bested, placed his arms around Lily's shoulders in a moment of brazen gall. Today, she surprisingly did not shirk away. Indeed, all of this seemed quite normal as the lot of them strolled into the bookshop.

"This section again?" Sirius chuckled as he followed Davie into the Runes section. She hadn't signed up for the class, but it was really the only thing she studied for pure enjoyment - and it seemed she was quite alone in this hobby, seeing as no one else even seemed to be browsing the section, which itself looked a bit dusty. "You know, I don't see what's so interesting about a bunch of ruined buildings."

"It's not so much the buildings, it's the people that used to be in them. You know, a lot of the things they used to do and believe aren't all that far off from today," Davie laughed, pulling a book off of the shelf and rifling through the pages until she found a particular chapter, flipping the open book towards Sirius and showing him the page. "You know - like the ancient Jews and Romans used wedding veils to symbolize -"

"A bit soon to be talking about weddings, isn't it?" Sirius chuckled, reaching over and shutting the book, tucking it back on the shelf. He leaned across the aisle in front of Davie, resting his elbow lazily on the shelf. "So," he began nonchalantly, brushing an imaginary bit of dust from his sleeve. "How's Dingbat doing nowadays?"

"Dingbat?"

"Digby! That's right, sorry - my memory must be going." Sirius chuckled. "How's that old bloke been over the summer?"

"I - I don't know. I'm sure he's been busy. I haven't had contact with him at all," Davie said honestly, reddening slightly and turning her face away as she pretended to be distracted by another book. "Not all summer."

"Would it be terribly inappropriate if I told you I was glad to hear that?" Sirius chuckled, amused at her reaction.

"Well, I can't very well stop you if that's how you feel."

"So it's alright that I'm glad you're not speaking to him?"

"Of course it is."

"So you won't speak with him?"

Davie turned back to Sirius, raising an eyebrow at him and drumming her fingers on the nearest shelf. "Don't push it, _Padfoot_," she said with a slight smirk. "All I said is that I can't stop you from being glad that I'm not close to Romnic anymore."

"And I can't stop you from being so enthralled by my roguish good looks. We're even," Sirius beamed, preparedly ducking as Davie playfully took a swing at his head. "Oy! I thought we were getting along again!" he laughed as they emerged from the bookcases, going back to Lily, James, and Remus, all carrying their books and grinning at the pair knowingly.

_September the Fifteenth, Nineteen-Seventy-Seven_

"What's a one-word way of saying 'can-kill-you-with-one-drop'?" Sirius asked, sticking the end of his quill into the wood table he was sitting at while he wrote his essay for Potions. Remus, sitting across from him, looked in amusement towards Davie, who was in a nearby plush chaise in the Gryffindor common room. Lily and James were both in Arithmancy class, and Peter was sitting at the table working on his Transfiguration assignment.

"Why are you trying to make your essay shorter?" Davie laughed, chucking a small throw pillow at his head but missing by a few inches without him even having to duck. "Slughorn said at least five hundred words on that essay and you've barely got three."

"Well, you know me, Davie," Sirius chuckled, plucking his quill from the table. "I've just got so much more to say, and not enough room to say it. Gifted, I guess -"

Remus gave a snort, and Sirius pulled out his wand, sending a jet of water flying at his friend.

"_Boys,_" Davie chided playfully. "You look awfully busy, but do you think you three could help _me_ with something?"

"Homework?" Remus asked, still laughing as he wiped the water off of his face with the sleeve of his robes. "I thought you finished your essay about an hour ago -"

"_No,_" Davie said, a mischievous grin spreading onto her youthful face. "Something even better. And I have a very special job for _you_, Peter."

* * *

"Prongs, come quick!" Remus yelled from down the hall just as Lily and James were stepping out of their classroom, chatting quite amiably. They both turned, looking surprised to see Remus, usually, the most composed of all of them, looking so frantic. "It's Worm tail -"

"We were bored, we were _just_ playing around!" Davie said, running up alongside Sirius to catch up with Remus - she crouched a bit over her knees to catch her breath. She glanced around to make sure the crowd exiting the classroom had scattered before she spoke again. "We were just trying to see which one of us could make the Room of Requirement come up first -"

"I thought Davie would be the one to come up with it!" Sirius interrupted, bumping Davie slightly. "But then -"

"-but then Sirius decided he wanted a room that only opened from the outside, and Wormy thought he'd been the one to make the room appear, so he went in! The door shut behind him!"

"Now we can't find him," Remus said, looking convincingly exasperated at Sirius and Davie. "We've been going up the same corridor for about twenty minutes now -"

"Well, it's because you're all looking - you're confusing it!" Lily pointed out before glancing at James.

"Let's go - you all stay behind a bit, it'll be better if we're spread out a little," James said, grabbing Lily by the hand and dashing off before the others, who waited until the pair had passed a bit; Davie gave them a Remus and Sirius a wink before gesturing for them to follow.

"What was it you asked for, Padfoot?" James said, glancing around the hallway. "Just - ask for it again. No one else think anything."

"A room that only opens from the outside," Sirius repeated. They all wheeled around and saw a door that had not been there moments earlier.

"Right - this one?" Lily said, pulling the unfamiliar-looking door open with James standing directly next to her. Suddenly, before they were able to even get a good look at what was inside the room, Sirius and Remus bumped them inside and shut the door behind them, while Davie walked over to a nearby suit of armor.

"Alright, Peter, you can come out from behind there now," she laughed as the pudgier boy peered out curiously.

"D'you think of it, Wormtail?" Sirius asked eagerly. "The whole entire time?"

He nodded fervently, surprised he had actually been of some sort of help. "A - a room that won't let James and Lily out until they're a c-couple."

_A/N's_

_Phew! I'm so glad I haven't been disowned for the brief Snape/Davie bit last chapter. Rest assured, Davie's heart belongs to Padfoot. The mishaps with Snape are - let's call them 'plot complications'. Tee-hee! Anyway, just minor things going on in this chapter as well, but we finally cornered Lily and James! I wonder who will make it official next. (*innocent whistle*)_

_To __**Padfoot'sPixie **__- Sirius and Davie's stubbornness will subside soon enough. A little bit, anyway. Thank you for reviewing so faithfully, it always makes my day!_

_In any case, it might be a slightly longer time until my next update - it may not be until the weekend or late, because I have an upcoming medical anatomy practical and quite a few papers to do, in case any of you are interested in my mundane college-student life. Wish me luck! Cheers!_


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter Thirteen**

_November the Third, Ninety-Seventy-Seven_

It had not taken long at all after pulling the trick with the Room of Requirement for Lily and James to emerge as boyfriend and girlfriend - when they arrived back in the common room beaming like idiots, hands clasped, Sirius, Remus, Peter, and Davie immediately started whooping and cheering. If anyone had failed to notice their entrance at first, by the time they had even reached the other side of the room there was certainly no one unaware of the fact that James Potter and Lily Evans - seventh years, Head Boy and Head Girl - were an item. And quite frankly, in the months that followed they were probably the happiest, most smitten couple the school had seen, something for which their friends had no shame in taking credit.

Very soon, however, Lily and James felt that now their relationship was official, there was a favor that badly needed repaying. They sat together on the common room couch one night - Davie had needed to go to the infirmary after catching a bit of a cold, and though she reminded them all was perfectly capable of going down to the infirmary and asking for a Pepper-up Potion on her own, Sirius had insisted upon accompanying her. As the pair had left the common room with Sirius attempting to support Davie as though she'd injured herself in some way, and Davie swatting him away insisting it was completely unnecessary, James craned his neck to stare out the door after them.

"I have an idea --"

"James, they're a bit more complicated than we are, and a great deal more stubborn," Lily said knowingly. "We can't just shut them up in a supply closet and hope for the best - they'd sooner blast their way out than own up to anything."

"I know," James said, looking slightly disappointed. Lily leaned against him, and he played idly with her hair as he thought. "They'll never admit anything without a direct confrontation --"

"An argument, you mean."

"Precisely," James said with a smirk before leaning over and placing a kiss on Lily's forehead. "I'm going to require the assistance of my beautiful, brilliant girlfriend, though - this could be a bit messy."

***

The next morning, James and Sirius had left early for Quidditch practice - James, being captain of the Gryffindor team, had taken Sirius on as Beater in their final year - leaving Remus and Peter with the girls before class.

"Oh, _dear_!" Lily said with an exaggerated gasp - she had never been one for lying. She gestured toward the table just as they were on their way out of the common room. "It looks like Sirius left his Transfiguration book --"

"That's fine," Davie said, waving her hand dismissively and continuing across the common room. "I'll just share mine --"

"No!" Lily said quickly, picking up the book, glancing pleadingly at Remus, who was also in on what Lily and James had planned. "I -- well, I don't think --"

"Don't be silly, Davie," Remus said matter-of-factly, reaching over and taking the book out of Lily's hands when he saw how much trouble she was having trying to manipulate her best friend into anything; it was simply against her nature. "Sirius is never going to learn any responsibility if you're always there to cover up for him. Here, you bring it to -- _whoops_!"

The book slipped out of his hands, landing open-faced on the floor and revealing a folded pink sheet of paper. Unable to help herself, Davie bent down and picked up the book and the carnation-colored stationery separately, unfolding the note with one hand - it smelled faintly of floral perfume, a scent so saccharine that Davie thought she'd become nauseous if she had to smell it for long. In Davie's opinion, it smelled very much like a homeless person trying to cover up the fact that they had not bathed in any decent amount of time.

"Dearest Sirius," she read aloud shamelessly; Remus and Lily looked at one another, then looked at Peter with a shushing signal when they noticed his confused expression. "I had a -- a wonderful time this summer. Can't wait to -- _brilliant!_" Davie said, crumpling the note and tossing it into the nearby fireplace. She stormed off so quickly, the others hardly were able to catch up with her before she reached Professor McGonagall's classroom.

"G'morning, Sirius," she said stiffly, standing across the desk from him and looking frigidly calm. "You forgot something upstairs."

"Ah -- thanks," he said, shooting her a grin and commencing to move his things from the seat next to him; lately, she had been amiable enough with him to even sit with him in class on occasion. "Dunno what I'd do without you, Davie. Here, sit -- McGonagall never marks you tardy but you wouldn't want to --"

She glared briefly at him - he hadn't the slightest idea why, he'd been at Quidditch practice all morning, so there was no way he might have said something nasty to her this early - and slammed the book harshly down on his desk, storming to the other end of the classroom, refusing to even speak a single word to him for the entire class period. Two hours later the clock chimed, signaling the end of class. Davie, who usually waited for everyone else so they as a group would drop Lily and James off at Arithmancy before heading back to the common room, immediately stood up and made a beeline for the exit; Puzzled, Sirius weaved his way around the desks, following Davie out of the classroom despite her obvious attempts at avoiding him.

"Someone spit in your cereal this morning?" he asked, prodding Davie lightly in the back. She swatted his hand away. Sirius thought they would walk off to the Common Room for their free period they way they always did. Lily and James glanced at one another, then decided to follow the pair in case things did not go quite as they had planned, or at least to watch the show a bit before needing to continue to Arithmancy.

"Davie!" Sirius called out, still trying to shove all of his things into his book bag while he was walking, nearly running into a suit of armor between looking down at his bag and up at Davie. He quickly realized they were not going at all in the same direction as usual when he saw Davie walk straight out the doors of the Entrance Hall, out onto the grounds. "What are you so --"

"Would you go _away_?!" Davie said shrilly, wheeling around to face Sirius as they neared the more open spaces of the grounds; Davie was clearly angry and prepared for a fight, as she dug her heels into the slightly damp ground. "Or are you going to tell me about what lucky girl you showed a 'wonderful time' this summer? Since we're such _good friends_ now --"

"What are you --"

"Just shut up!" Davie interrupted. "You're the on always going on about how I --"

"Even if there was a girl this summer, what's it to you?" Sirius said in a tone that Davie could not tell was a bluff, his voice raising in volume to match Davie's as he started taking longer strides to catch up with her. Her legs were far shorter than his, but, Sirius noted, she must have been determined to keep away from him. "You didn't even _speak _to me for the entire summer! It's not as if you --"

"I said GO AWAY!" Davie yelled, drawing her wand on Sirius as they neared the middle of the grounds, near the edge of the lake. They were lucky nearly everyone would be in class or en route at the moment, as the commotion seemed to be drawing the attention even of the giant squid. Sirius could have sworn he saw the shadow of an abnormally large tentacle moving under the water. "Get away from me, or I'll --"

"You'll what? Hex me? Go on! Hex away, then!" Sirius retorted, throwing his arms out dramatically, though this move would prove be a mistake on his part, as Davie did precisely as she was told, tossing a hex in his direction. Sirius only just jumped out of the way, and the hex took a bit out of a nearby tree - the three would recover, but Sirius noted with a gulp that had she blown a hole in his arm, it would be much harder to repair.

"Oh dear," Lily said with a grimacing, quite tempted to hide behind James in case Davie started hurling hexes in other directions. "This… is not the result I was hoping for."

"Nonsense. That's just the way they are," James said, looking as nonchalant as if they had been a pair of toddlers playing a game of leapfrog. More than nonchalant, he actually looked slightly _pleased_ with the way this was going, as though he knew something that Lily didn't. "This is a good sign, Lils. Trust me."

"You're on the juice, aren't you? Got into a bottle of firewhiskey this morning," Sirius continued to yell at Davie, looking as though he was about to pull out his hair; Davie still had her wand drawn on him. "Because you're not making any _bloody _sense --"

"You go around acting like you fancy me so much when you're seeing Merlin knows who, and _I'm_ the one who isn't making sense?!" Davie yelled, her voice cracking slightly from overuse. "Who is it? Mary Macdonald? Merlin knows _she's_ willing, any time, any place --"

"You don't want to be my girlfriend, so why are you --"

"_YOU NEVER ASKED ME!_"

At this, Sirius was struck absolutely dumb - she was _angry_ that he had never actually asked her to be his girlfriend? She had _wanted_ him to ask? Sirius could not for the life of him figure out how he was supposed to have figured it out, Davie had never shown any problem with the fact that they weren't a couple before. She had always seemed to have an aversion to it, in fact.

Neither would really later remember who actually initiated, but before either had even really cooled off or thought things through, they were drawn together very much like magnets, kissing quite fiercely -- it was quite lucky for them that Apollyon Pringle very rarely patrolled what students were doing _outside _unless alerted to do so, because they continued on in quite the same manner for so long that Lily and James, with one last triumphant glance, had to leave for class.

Davie and Sirius only separated at the sound of Fang barking from Hagrid's hut a bit of a way off - they quickly jumped apart and waved with large, flushed grins when Hagrid peered out of his window. Then, smoothing out their now rumpled clothes, they turned awkwardly back to face one another.

"So," Sirius began, scratching the back of his neck "Do you --"

"I, ah -- I didn't hit you with that hex, did I?" Davie stammered nervously. "I really didn't --"

"I'm _fine_," Sirius laughed. "Now, stop changing the subject." He moved closer and placed his hands on Davie's shoulders. "But a bit tired, come to think of it. Are we going to continue yelling and hexing one another, or are you going to be my girlfriend already?"

At first, Davie paused, looking directly at Sirius in total silence - had there not been a growing autumn breeze making the grounds pleasantly chilly, Sirius was sure that he would be covered in sweat, though he wasn't sure why; he had _never_ worried about being turned down by any girl in the school, many of whom were much more popular than Davina Maddux. Still, Sirius felt a sinking sensation in the pit of his stomach as he thought of all the possible ways she could shoot him down… '_You must be insane!', 'Never in a hundred lifetimes.', 'You must be joking.', 'Never --'_

"Alright."

Sirius froze, blinking incredulously and sure that he had to be hearing things. "C-come again?"

"Sirius Black," Davie laughed, grabbing him playfully by the collar and yanking him a bit closer. "Are you trying to give me a chance to change my mind?"

"Absolutely not," Sirius beamed, dipping in to kiss her again.

When they walked into the Great Hall for lunch later that day, looking slightly disheveled, beaming widely with Sirius' arm wrapped around Davie's shoulders, her head resting comfortably against , James grinned and leaned over to give Lily a playful kiss.

"We're brilliant - you should consider being a Marauder full-time."

Lily looked at James his her eyebrows raised. "I think all of that lying made me break a sweat," she admitted, looking scandalized. "It took me nearly an hour to pen a note in writing Davie wouldn't recognize."

"You?" Davie said, picking up on the conversation and scurrying over, though she was still tightly holding Sirius' hand, tugging him over; glances at the pair came from up and down not only the Gryffindor table, but from a fair few Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs as well. Davie glanced over at her friend, looking absolutely dumbfounded. Lily simply grinned sheepishly.

"Well," she said, with a hint of mischief in her voice that had clearly come from hanging around James Potter a bit too much as of late, "it was the least I could do, don't you think?

***

_A/N's_

_Ta-dah! My early Valentine's Day gift of sorts to all of my readers -- Davie and Sirius are finally an item, and…Lily played a prank! And as a bit of an Easter Egg (though most of you probably won't care) the date on this chapter does have a significance. Lily and James are plotting about this on the third of November, and the plan takes shape the next day, making it the fourth -- November fourth is the date way back in 2005 when I started dating the man who would become my husband. I think that counts as self-insertion, but I couldn't help myself on this one. Anyway -- about time, right? Considering their first kiss was in chapter four. Nine chapters to make it official!_

_In upcoming chapters, we will still have teenage-fluff, for a good while, but there's also going to be more action - I'm not the best of action writers, but I'm going to give it a shot! That chapter will be up sometime after Valentine's Day whilst I massage it and try to get the action scenes a little more clean. Until then, cheers!_


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter Fourteen**

_December the Ninth, Nineteen-Seventy-Seven_

"Sirius, we can't skive off of Potions, what about -"

"C'mon," Sirius laughed, tugging Davie Maddux out of the school building, across the grounds, darting around to avoid being caught. The petite girl put up a bit of struggle, attempting to yank her wrist away to no avail. Sirius merely chuckled in response, shaking his head as he and Davie made their way past the lake. "Just _one_ class, it won't kill you. We'll only be a few minutes, on my honor."

Davie hesitated; she certainly didn't feel comfortable missing class. She always felt as though she had to exert so much extra effort to be worthy of being best friend to Lily Evans, who happened to be _Head Girl_. Sleeping in class on occasion was a vice for which Davie was apt to excuse herself- she often stayed awake much later than the others in the tower trying to cram a few extra chapters of studying in - but skiving off completely, her conscience would not often allow. However, considering she had been spending so much time with Sirius lately, and Sirius thought they would be able to get away with it…

"Oh, alright," Davie laughed, and Sirius tugged her off to an isolated alcove between Greenhouse Five and the Herbology supply shed. Teenagers, it appeared, would be teenagers.

"So," he laughed huskily, shifting Davie so that she was leaning against the wall of the supply shed; the space was so small that Davie had nowhere else to put her arms except on his shoulders. Sirius certainly did not mind the proximity in the slightest. "I've finally gone and done it. I've corrupted you. The Head Girl's best friend -"

"- and the Head _Boy's_ best friend -"

"- snogging behind the greenhouses."

Davie laughed quietly, raising an eyebrow. "We're not snogging, Sirius."

"Bollocks, you're right!" Sirius said, snapping his fingers, feigning surprise and realization - Davie, in response, gave him a playful pinch in the stomach. He grinned down at his girlfriend, glancing suggestively at her lips. "That should be remedied _immediately_."

Davie was growing quite accustomed to kissing Sirius Black, and he was rather good at it. Perhaps it was from experience, she would sometimes muse to herself, but she didn't consider it an issue of much importance. She couldn't think ill of him, considering she had spent a good portion of the past few years unwilling to be publicly seen with him; what else was to be expected of a teenage boy? She reached out, loosening the tie of his uniform somewhat clumsily, nestling into the curve of his neck as he moved his hands over her waist.

"I think this is _far_ more educational that Slughorn's class," Sirius laughed throatily. "Completely worth skiving off of class if you ask me."

Davie squealed comically when Sirius grazed her neck with his teeth, faintly marking her pale skin, He chuckled when she pushed him backwards in surprise.

"_Sirius_!" she yelped, laughing as she playfully evaded his attempts to kiss her again. "You can't keep doing that -"

"You're a witch, and a damn good one," he said matter-of-factly. "I'm sure you can cover them up. Now -"

"_Well, well_."

Both Sirius and Davie looked up in surprise at the sound of wheezing, stiff voice, and Davie turned a bright shade of scarlet at the sight of the caretaker, Apollyon Pringle. The two teenagers were consequently too riled up to even come up with a believable excuse; Sirius had stammered something about looking for shovels to harvest bobotubers, and Davie had said mentioned something about running errands for Hagrid.

Eventually, however, both simply had to accept a ten-point deduction from Mr. Pringle and tromp abashedly back to the castle. When they arrived in the Entrance Hall, however, Sirius caught sight of Severus Snape, standing with his arms crossed by a suit of armor with an expression of cold glee. Davie went red in the face when she realized that Snape had clearly seen them on their way out, had told Apollyon Pringle that he'd spotted them skipping their classes. However, while Davie was overcome with embarrassment, Sirius' grey eyes glinted with a very different sort of emotion.

"_Snape_," He hissed - he had as of late, for Davie's sake, made what was in his mind a valiant attempt not to call him _Snivellus_. His hand twitched, moving slowly toward where he had his wand stowed in his pocket "That slimy -"

"Sirius," Davie said in a placating tone, giving his itching wand arm a sharp tug as they watched Snape turn the corner, disappearing into the Great Hall. "Just drop it - can't do anything about it now." Sirius snarled resignedly, wrinkling his nose and baring his teeth a bit, which led Davie to jokingly point out that perhaps he was taking his Animagus form a bit too much to heart.

"Could be," Sirius said with a smirk, stopping in his tracks. "D'you think you could scratch my fleas for me?"

"Not in _public, _Sirius!" Davie beamed, giving his arm a playful pinch, and the two burst into a fit of very childlike laughter. Two girls in the Great Hall peered out from their table, seething with jealousy at Davina Maddux for being the object of Sirius' attention; while they doubted this would be a lasting sort of romance, she was certainly the only one he had ever focused on for this long and even that was enough of a reason to dislike her.

"Can you believe her?" one of the girls hissed, a bit louder than she needed to. "I wonder what sort of Love Potion she's come up with for him. It must be something strong, I find it hard to believe that _Sirius Black _is so arse-over-elbows for her, she's nothing special."

Davie gave a chest-heaving sigh, turning red in the face for a second time in only the past few minutes - why did she have to attract this sort of attention all the time? She glanced at a nearby suit of armor, wondering if she ought to just hop inside and hide until people forgot about her. Forever, possibly.

"Don't let them get to you," Sirius said, brow furrowing slightly. "We both know -"

"I'm fine!" Davie interrupted, forcing a smile onto her face. Sirius had known Davie long enough, however, to know when her smile was completely fake. He groaned a bit, stepping in front of her once they had cleared out of the view from the Great Hall, and blocked her path, grabbing her gently by the arm.

"Is it this again? You don't want anyone looking at you?" he asked, slightly exasperated. "I thought you didn't care what other people thought -"

"I said I was fine!" Davie said in a shrill whisper, tossing her arms out to the side. Sirius rolled his eyes in resignation and gestured for her to pass; there was simply no arguing with her when she was like this, and after going out for a little over a month now, he knew better than to try unless he wanted leaves sprouting from his ears. Davie had gotten to be quite good at hexing, and terribly creative at that. He could only be glad that she hadn't started coming up with hexes when they still hated one another, or he'd had spent more time in the infirmary than in his classes.

"Alright, _alright_," Sirius said, following behind her. "Well, are we still going to Hogsmeade tomorrow?"

"Why wouldn't we be?"

"I don't know, maybe you're too embarrassed to be seen with me."

"Well, it's a bit late to be secretive about it now, isn't it?" Davie added with a laughed, finally turning around to face Sirius and grabbing his hand. "Tomorrow. It's a date -"

"- to Madam Puddifoot's."

"No." Davie said resolutely, crossing her arms and raising her eyebrows at Sirius. "I'll vomit, I swear to you, and you'll never hear the end of it. You'll never get me to set foot in that ghastly place. _Never_."

"Why not?" Sirius asked with a laugh. All the other girls seemed to find the tea shop rather quaint. In fact, many of his other girlfriends had insisted upon going there on a first date. This often contributed to the reasons why there was never a second, and while it was a source of the utmost relief that Davie had such a distaste for it, her reaction at the suggestion never ceased to amuse. In the eyes of Sirius Black, this was one of the very things that made Davie Maddux absolutely bloody perfect.

* * *

"Hard lines, mate," James laughed when Sirius recounted his and Davie's story about being caught by Apollyon Pringle the previous day. Today, the entire group had gathered in the Three Broomsticks for lunch instead of sitting outside in the snow. "Snivelly's out to get us both, it seems. S'wot the Room of Requirement is for -"

"James!" Lily squealed, swatting her boyfriend on the arm. "Really, you don't need to tell _everyone_ -"

"You've been using the Room of Requirement! And to think, _I_ was ashamed!" Davie laughed, looking immensely relieved, leaning against Sirius as she took another gulp of her gillywater.

"Why are you drinking that?" Sirius asked, rolling his eyes. "You should've ordered a butterbeer or a mead, you're only going to complain about how cold you are once we get back outside."

"- _anyway_," Davie laughed, waving off Sirius' chiding. "Pringle was just out to get us. We were only, you know, talking -"

"Ten points each for talking! I believe that's the first time I've heard that one," Remus laughed, leaning across the table and clinking a fork against Davie's glass. "What were you two _talking_ about that required such privacy?"

"If I told you, I might have to kill you. Highly confidential," Davie beamed, yanking her glass away across the table and placing it on a coaster next to Sirius' butterbeer. "Honestly, Remus, I -"

But what Davie said, they would not find out. Before she could finish, there was a distant bang - Davie flinched immediately, and Sirius reflexively grabbed her hand. No one considered it an overreaction that Davie was taken aback by such sounds in Hogsmeade, it had happened just the previous year after all. It certainly would not have been the first time it had marked something bad happening. However, this time, instead of cowering, she began shoving Sirius to get out of the cushioned chair of their booth.

"Come on, come on, let's _go_!" she insisted as they all stood up from their chairs, filing outside behind the other inhabitants of the Three Broomsticks to see what the noise was. No one else, however, seemed to want to wander off and investigate, instead coalescing in the middle of the High Street buzzing loudly about what the sound possibly could have been.

"We're being attacked again! _Help_!" came a shrill scream belonging to a freckled third-year girl, and instead of doing anything productive, everyone began doing what young people often do in times of crisis - they began compacting into an even tighter group, giving various exclamations of panic. Lily, James, and the others had to shove and squeeze against the flow of people to try and get to a clear space, namely a very leaky cobblestone alley behind the Three Broomsticks, where they all waited for a few moments until they had all arrived.

"It came from somewhere behind the tree line," Lily said in a low voice, gesturing into the distance - Davie recognized that location from the previous incident in the village, but said nothing. Lily looked at her best friend resolutely. "We should go, come on -"

"No, you're not going," James said, holding Lily back gently, but at the idea of being stopped simply because she was a girl, Lily glared, grabbing Davie by the wrist. The two girls darted away, and the four exasperated boys could do nothing except chase after them.

"It sounded like it came from here," Lily panted, still running with Davie alongside her.

"There's a clearing up ahead," Davie nodded. "We might be able to - _ah_!"

Davie squealed as she felt her foot catch on something on the ground, causing her to fall forward, but when she looked down to see what it had been, she saw nothing. Her fall, however, had given the boys enough of a chance to catch up, just as Davie pulled her wand out of her pocket, pointing it at the approximate location of where she had tripped.

"_Revellio_!"

After a small jet of light emitted from her wand, it seemed to hit an empty space, until with a flurry of sparks, a large rock appeared in a patch of ground that appeared flattened and trodden on.

"A _rock_?" Sirius asked as he walked over, pulling Davie up to her feet. "What prat would take the trouble to hide a rock? As if someone would be interested in _stealing_ it. Say we crack it open and see if there are a few galleons hidden inside -"

"Maybe someone playing a _practical joke_," Davie said matter-of-factly. "Not like you've done that before have you -"

"No, I don't think so," Lily said, brow furrowing. She pointed her wand at the rock, and with a flourish, moved it out of the way to reveal a small hole in the ground that housed a pile of dark fabric.

"_Robes_," James said in concern. "What would they be -"

"They're _Slytherin_ robes," Sirius said distastefully as he pulled one set out of the hole pinched between his fingers to show them to the others while making as little physical contact with them as possible; there must have been five or six sets still remaining in the hole, all bearing Slytherin crests. "Merlin knows how long they've been here -"

"Not long." Davie pointed out, yanking the robes from Sirius' hand and eyeing it critically, pinching the fabric with her fingers and squinting at it, looking a bit like a detective. "Look, the creases from folding aren't very deep, and there's not much dirt on them. These have been worn recently."

It appeared that Remus was about to speak up when from the surrounding trees, there came a strange sound, sort of a clicking noise that echoed in the grove of trees around them - was it clapping?

"Good show, children. Very clever," came a familiar voice that all of them recognized but couldn't immediately place. A dark-hooded figure in a mask stepped into the clearing, clapping its gloved hands; he was soon joined by five others, surrounding the lot of them in the clearing.

"Get behind me," James said to Lily, but she glared defiantly, her green eyes glinting as she drew her wand, stepping away from where James had directed her to stand. "Lily, would you get out of here?"

"Don't do anything stupid," Sirius murmured, trying to grab Davie by the arm and move her backwards as well, but she yanked herself out of his reach; her eyes narrowed at him slightly at the idea of having to stand _behind_ him while this was all happening.

"D-de-death Eaters," Peter stammered, pulling out his own wand but clearly not sure of what exactly he was going to do. He looked clearly more terrified than any of the rest of them - while Lily and Davie showed complete aversion to hiding behind anyone, Peter would have gladly taken the offer for a place to hide and allow this entire confrontation to simply pass him by, as everyone knew that Peter Pettigrew possessed absolutely no talent as far as dueling went. The hooded figures around them all laughed at the chubby, shaking boy.

"Is this who we're going to be exerting our efforts on?" said the first Death Eater to appear in the clearing. It did not seem at all coincidental that suddenly, the wintry wind that had been present for the entire day seemed to have gone still, silencing even the rustling of fallen leaves. "A couple of bookworms and their boyfriends?"

"No one sent us," Davie hissed angrily, a tone of voice with which her friends were thoroughly unfamiliar - she seemed to be overflowing with absolute anger and loathing and determination. "No one _needs_ to send us to do their dirty work, you useless, mindless -"

"_Pellera Maxima!_"

In a flash of deep purple light, Davie was catapulted backwards, hitting a nearby tree and falling forward onto the ground. She groaned, clutching her arm tightly, writhing in pain before even trying to get to her feet.

"I suggest," the Death Eater said with a dark laugh, starting to circle around the group with his wand drawn and ready, "that you take your leave and allow us to have our fun, before -"

"_FLAGRATE!_"

"Padfoot, _no!_" James said, holding out his hand to try and stop his friend, but a long whip of fire was already slicing through the air, skimming the front of the lead Death Eater's robes. Immediately, a flurry of hexes began flying through the air, just as Davie was struggling to push herself to her feet.

The group of Gryffindors was equally matched by the Death Eaters in number, but clearly not in experience in dueling. Sirius almost immediately suffered a large cut above his eyebrow, and Remus had to dive to the side to avoid losing an arm to one of the Death Eater's hexes.

Davie, now finally standing but holding her wand a bit awkwardly in her left hand rather than her right due to her fall, was clumsily hurling hexes toward the Death Eater that was creeping towards her.

"Davie, leg it, would you?" Sirius yelled over his shoulder, preoccupied by his duel with another Death Eater. "Get out of here!"

Davie, however, didn't even look at him. She refused to budge as the much taller Death Eater stalked towards her. She shakily raised her wand, and yelled, "_Expelli-_"

"_CRUCIO!_"

The scene seemed to freeze as Davie let out a loud, shrill shriek - her muscles moved involuntarily, her eyes were clenched shut excruciatingly - every vein in her body seemed to be pumping through with acid, her nerves were on fire - no one was stopping it, too awestruck at seeing an Unforgivable Curse performed on someone for the first time. Davie felt her vision starting to fade into blackness in response to the excruciating pain before she heard two male voices yell a disarming spell at her attacker - but the voices didn't belong to Sirius, or James, or Remus, or even Peter.

"You _fool_!" Davie heard one of the familiar voices hiss angrily, just as she dropped weakly to her knees. "_Not - that - spell!_ We'll be seen!"

The Death Eaters immediately broke into a run, and Davie vaguely felt a hand on her back before she crumpled completely, her eyes fluttering shut.

_A/N's_

_And there's me, dabbling in some action scenes - don't worry, Davie isn't dead! She's just been manhandled pretty badly. Cookies to anyone who can figure out the two who saved her - it's not too hard, if you've been reading a bit closely._

_Thanks to __**Rugglet**__ for subscribing! Also to __**hootieootieootie**__ for their reviews. Hopefully my action scene didn't let you down! And to __**cherryblossom2revenger**__, I noticed you like the fluffy scenes! Tee-hee - the chapters are going to get a bit dramatic and serious now, since we're getting into the real world, and the Wizarding War and whatnot - but I will always try and make room for sweetness and fluff!_

_Also to __***cassie*, **__thank you for your constructive criticism - I'm trying my best to make Davie seem as real as possible, and to me at least, real girls are worried about not standing out enough, because they aren't extraordinary, or haven't found what they're extraordinary at. Also - I personally get really annoyed trying to write in first person perspective, it's just hard to do for me. Thank you for helping me improve as a writer!_

_At the rate this story is going… it appears that it might hit fifty chapters, unless I shave it down and take out some of the events I had written in. Any objections to a really long story? Feedback is always appreciated! Cheers!_


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter Fifteen**

_December the Eleventh, Nineteen-Seventy-Seven_

"Sirius, standing there isn't going to make her wake up any faster --"

"If she hadn't been so bleeding stubborn and just left when I'd told her to, she wouldn't be like this," a male voice said -- Davie hadn't opened her eyes, but she recognized Lily's and Sirius' voices immediately. "Did Madam Pomfrey say when she'd --"

"Why aren't you lot in class right now?" Davie groaned quietly, squinting a bit in attempts to adjust to the light in the room. Even though her vision wasn't completely clear, she could just make out the fact that James, Remus, and Peter were seated around her as well, and that it was definitely morning. "Did we win? Where did they --"

"Dumbledore came by, said we could stay a while today after he found out what happened," Lily interrupted gently; he face was pale, and she looked tired, though not as off-color as Sirius. She bore a comforting smile. She did not, however, assuage Davie's concerns about the outcome of the confrontation. "It's -- well, it's not every day one of your best friends has an Unforgivable Curse cast on them --"

"It's not every day _yet,_" Davie huffed. "But with the way things are going --"

"How are you feeling?" Sirius asked in concern, cutting her off mid-sentence as though he didn't particularly want to have to hear what had happened to his girlfriend reiterated. Davie looked up at Sirius and laughed weakly; the act made her chest ache a bit.

"I'm right knackered, that's how I'm feeling," she said with a faint grin, and the lot of them managed a laugh as well. "But all things considered, not badly at all. I thought I'd died --"

"Not funny," Lily interrupted sharply. "You _could_ have died if two of them hadn't stopped the curse --"

"I knew who they were," Davie said quietly, her expression suddenly going far less bright. "I heard their voices and I'm sure, I've heard them before --"

"They're Slytherins, obviously," James said, rubbing his forehead and leaning his elbows on his knees as he sat in the chair. "So we're going to see them around."

"You mean -- they weren't caught?" Davie asked in a disappointed voice. "I thought we would have had them for sure --"

"Oh, you did?" Sirius asked irritably; there were few times he asked to be taken seriously, and indeed few people he asked to do so, but in his mind, when he had take n the trouble of worrying so severely over Davie, she ought to at least be a bit chipper about things. "That's why you went and opened your mouth, is it? Thought we _had _them? Couldn't clear off like I asked --"

"If I hadn't taken it, we all might have been _killed_!" Davie retorted, shakily forcing herself to sit up in her hospital bed despite the fact that her arms felt more like they were made of limp spaghetti than of solid bone. "If I had cleared off and they hadn't used that blasted curse on me, they wouldn't have run off!"

"I don't care, Davie -- bloody hell, you're not an Auror yet --"

"Fine, then I'm _practicing_," Davie interrupted resolutely. "It was bound to happen to me at some point at the rate things are going."

Sirius crossed his arms, brooding silently for a minute, before standing up and starting towards the door. "Fine, since you obviously don't need anyone's help, I'll just go to class, shall I?" he huffed as he stormed across the room, to everyone else's chagrin. However, before he stormed clear out the door, he stopped in his tracks, and though he didn't turn around, he paused to murmur apologetically.

"I'll be back with lunch since you can't even get up. Don't go anywhere," he said almost inaudibly before storming out the door.

And Davie certainly did not go much of anywhere for that day, even after her friends had already decided to leave for their classes. For a girl who had rarely been left alone long enough throughout her childhood to have a bruised shin or a broken finger, the Cruciatus Curse was unsurprisingly debilitating.

A bit before noon that day, when Davie had just about exhausted her patience with counting holes in the ceiling, the infirmary door creaked open. Davie looked up, expecting to see Sirius, but instead --

"Snape," she said suspiciously, groping around her bed to find her wand before he held out his hand, dropping his own wand on the floor next to him, in plain sight. Davie eyed him suspiciously, wondering what would possibly move him to do it -- she was almost _sure_ he had been among those responsible for the attack the previous night. Why was he not just finishing the job?

"I want you to get out," she said hoarsely. "For all I know, it was you who put the curse on me and you're here to tie up loose ends --"

"You owe _me_ your life, Maddux," he said stiffly. "I'd show a little more gratitude if I were you."

Davie's forehead wrinkled in thought as she tried to remember exactly what she had heard before she lost consciousness - she knew someone had disarmed her attacker, and that it hadn't been any of her friends, or Sirius. She remembered the familiar voice chiding the Death Eater --

"You," she said in realization, looking up at Severus questioningly. "You stopped him."

"I couldn't stand to listen to her," Snape said stiffly, and Davie immediately understood what he meant - Davie had clearly heard Lily scream at the sight of her bet friend being tortured, and only Davie would completely grasp Severus Snape's inability to continue watching.

"And here I thought it was because we were friends," Davie laughed frailly.

"We're nothing of the sort, in case recent events have been insufficient in informing you. I've forgotten about last summer," Snape replied stoically, and Davie smiled sadly.

"I'd figured that on my own, thanks," she pointed out matter-of-factly. "But thank you, anyway."

Snape nodded stiffly, then glanced around as though making sure there was absolutely no one around. "You're lucky. Mulciber's a powerful wizard, he could've killed you --"

"I suppose this is strictly off the record, is it?" Davie said in a serious tone, lowering the thin sheets that were sitting over her in the infirmary bed, showing that Davie was still in the same clothes as the previous evening -- her jumper was dirty and had holes worn in from where she had fallen. She looked absolutely wretched, actually. "Nothing you'd want me telling the others."

"That's your decision," Snape replied, "but you have no proof except for a bunch of robes left in a hole in the ground - they'll call you pathologically paranoid and cart you to St. Mungo's. You'd be better off being grateful you're alive at all."

"Who else stopped Mulciber, then?" Davie asked curiously. "I heard two voices --"

"Digby."

Davie froze - was Snape joking? Romnic Digby, the first boy she had dated, the first boy she ever held hands with, the first boy she had ever kissed, was a _Death Eater_. She knew that Romnic had recently started following the same crowd as Severus, but this certainly did not occur to her as the reason Digby hadn't written her even once for the entire summer. "I-- I don't -- Romnic isn't --"

"He _is_, don't be so surprised," Snape said, rolling his eyes at Davie's expression of clear and tangible shock. "Digby's a Death Eater, and a bleeding dedicated one at that. "

For a good twenty seconds, Davie could say nothing - she could only blink wordlessly at Snape, who had no problem with it; Davie talked a great deal too much for his taste to begin with. However, being friends of a sort with her for an entire summer imparted upon him the knowledge that she simply did not stay quiet for long.

"So, you don't want me to tell anyone what you did?" Davie asked quietly. "If I tell them you saved me, you could be vindicated for --"

"I certainly don't need to be vindicated in the eyes of anyone _here_," he sneered, leaning forward and tucking his wand back into his pocket. "You won't say a word."

"No one?" Davie asked. "Not even --"

"_Especially_ not her."

"Actually," Davie began, "I was going to ask about Dumbledore. But if the fact that you did something heroic is so humiliating that not even Lily can know --"

"It's nearly as humiliating as the fact that I spent the entire summer being friends with _you_."

At this, Davie was struck dumb again - surprisingly, she didn't look as if she was going to cry, but rather like she felt a great deal of pity for Severus Snape. Recovering slightly, Davie opened her mouth to speak when the door moved again. This time, it was Sirius looking inside.

"Roast turkey and potatoes, that should -- _Snivellus_." he said, cutting himself off when he saw who else was in the room; Sirius, understandably, possessed great suspicion about Severus Snape, even without having overheard the conversation in the room. "I can take over from here, _Snape_. I don't want Davie losing her appetite when I've only just brought her lunch."

Severus merely glared, sweeping out without another word while Sirius walked over to Davie's bedside, carrying a plate of food. She drew herself up quietly, unsure of how to speak to him after their earlier confrontation. Sirius, however, was very closely scrutinizing Davie's face, and in fact did note the off-colour expression on her face.

"What'd the prat say this time?" Sirius asked, setting the plate down with a clatter on the bedside table. "I'm this close to killing him, Davie, and don't you --"

"The way you carry on, you'd think Snape was responsible for everything bad happening in this school," Davie said, pursing her lips slightly. "We can't even prove who attacked us in the woods yesterday --"

"Well, you can't expect me not to be worried with scum like _him_ coming around with no one to make sure he doesn't try anything!" Sirius retorted, banging a fist down on the bedside table so that the plate and flatware gave a loud clink. "We _know_ what his sort is like --"

"Well --" Davie stammered. "Well, why does it matter? I'm just another girl you're dating anyway --"

"I've dated you longer than I've dated anyone else, Davie, are you that thick?"

"So?" Davie asked. "What's that supposed to say to me?"

Sirius paused, unsure of how to answer the question considering the hopeful undertone with which Davie had asked it. What was she expecting him to say? Of course, he had some idea what Davie wanted to hear -- it was something a great many girls wanted to hear from Sirius Black as a matter of fact. Moreover, he did want to say it, but in a situation like the present, his pride simply would not allow it.

"Would you just eat already?" Sirius murmured under his breath, pushing the plate towards Davie who looked a bit crestfallen at the lack of an answer. "It's getting cold."

With a sigh, Davie reached over and took a small forkful of potatoes into her mouth, musing on the fact that Sirius Black was completely and utterly hopeless.

Meanwhile, Lily was sitting in the library working on an Arithmancy essay; James had come along as well, saying he needed to work on the same assignment, but he had really done little work on it all the entire time they had been in the library, instead glancing at his girlfriend from time to time as though he were about to ask her something, but always thinking better of it.

Lily, of course, was shrewd enough to catch on very quickly but at least gave James a chanced to get his wits about him -- this was certainly very unlike James Potter, being this jumpy and nervous. If any of the other girls in school had seen him this way, Lily was quite unsure of how they would react. She giggled a bit to herself, but kept herself focused on her assignment.

"Lily," James piped up suddenly, and it was clear he was nervous because his voice was punctuated by a very uncharacteristic, very un-James-Potter hitch in his throat. Lily suppressed her laughter and looked up from her essay.

"Yes?"

"Are you busy?"

"…is that some sort of joke?"

"Oh, bugger," James muttered, mussing his hair nervously and scratching the back of his neck. "I was going to ask you something."

"Then why don't you go ahead and ask it already?" Lily laughed quietly. James mumbled something inaudible, and Lily tapped her ear to indicate that he needed to speak up. He repeated himself, but not any louder than the first time, causing Lily to laugh quizzically.

"Oh, alright then," James said, letting out a breath. "Lily, you know, we've been -- well, we've been an item for a good while now."

"It'll be three months in four days," Lily grinned knowingly. "So what are you getting at?"

"Well --"

"Yes?"

"Well --"

"Yes?"

"Iloveyou --" James said quickly, clearing his throat and giving his hair another ruffle. Lily smiled calmly at him, hinting that she knew he'd say something of the sort. "Lily, I love you," he said quietly, pushing away the textbook he'd been pretending to read, then leaning over and clasping Lily's hand. "I love you, I love y--"

"I heard you, James," Lily laughed, placing her hand on top of his and grinning. She kept her voice low to keep from drawing attention from Madam Pince, the school librarian. "And I love you too."

"You do?"

"Are you going to make me repeat myself, James Potter?"

"You love me too?"

"Yes."

James gave a loud whoop and pumped his fist into the air, immediately drawing Madam Pince to their table, her vulture-like nose wrinkled with nostrils flaring, glaring down at the two teenagers.

"Vile, horrible children -- defacing the institution of the library -- making it your _love nest _--"

What else Madam Pince had to say about them, they did not wait to find out as James grabbed Lily by the hand and pulled her away from the library, the pair of them laughing giddily, not noticing that Madam Pince was not the only one to have overheard their exchange.

From behind another nearby shelf of books, Severus Snape slammed the book he had been reading back onto the shelf, swiping furiously at his eyes, his jaw clenched tightly. Potter -- James, pompous, full-of-hot-air Potter -- was, in Severus Snape's mind, not capable of properly loving anyone, especially not Lily Evans. Not _his_ Lily. Potter was making the tie between himself and Lily far too inextricable, and the fact that Black had somehow managed to also remain in Davie Maddux's good graces only inflated their egos. It had to be stopped.

***

_A/N's_

_As homage to all the Lily/James fans, they are yet again the first -- this time, to say "I love you." And yet again, Snape is displeased. And of course, yet again, Davie and Sirius are a bit slow getting their feelings out. I think you can tell this is a huge hint as to what is going to happen next. _

_Also as a note, this story is going to span from the MWPP era all the way to the Second Wizarding War, but it won't be as long as that makes it sound because there will be massive time jumps from time to time. _

_Thanks to **Padfoot'sPixie** __for the long review this time! I sort of agree, Davie ought to have stood up to those girls in the Great Hall, but she hasn't truly come into her own yet. Strange thing she is, able to stand up to Death Eaters, but not to girls gossiping about her. But she'll grow more of a spine in time!_

_Also thanks to __**PadfootCc** __for favoriting! Much appreciated and hope you enjoy!_

_Anyway, next chapter - more action, more Sirius/Davie conflict, more fluff. Not necessarily in that order, but you get the point. Tee-hee! Until then, cheers!_


	16. Chapter 16

_**Chapter Sixteen**_

_December the Eighteenth, Nineteen Hundred Seventy-Seven_

Lily flinched at the sound of a crash in the boys' dormitories upstairs - it could not very well have come from the girls' rooms because everyone knew that the spiral staircase leading to the rooms turned into a slide if a boy tried to ascend. It was only fortunate that Remus and Peter had gone home for the holidays already, as Peter Pettigrew may very well have soiled himself out of fright at the noise coming from upstairs.

"Another row?" James asked, not looking up from the essay he was working on; instead of sitting properly at a desk, he had the parchment propped up on the back of a textbook.

"Yes, Davie's up there. They've been fighting a lot lately," Lily pointed out in a rather melancholy tone, leaning against James and skimming over her own textbook for Potions class. "The whole week, ever since what happened at Hogsmeade, all Sirius does is lose his temper -- you know, he got upset over Davie eating too many sweet potatoes at dinner the other night. And Davie -- well, you can't get mad at her without her retaliating. You don't think it was a mistake to get them together in the first place?"

"Why would you say that?"

Lily jumped at the sound of another crash from upstairs, then glanced at James pointedly.

"Oh, I don't know," she added sarcastically. "But I really hope whatever that was, wasn't something of _yours_."

Just then, Davie came running out of the room, straight down the spiral staircase - she was quite red in the face and clearly had just been crying. Lily got up to try and get an explanation from the girl but she simply waved her arm dismissively towards the staircase she had descended, and stormed right out of the common room, muttering incoherently to herself. Sirius, meanwhile stalked slowly down the stairs and flopped irately into the couch across from James, crossing his legs and pulling a chocolate frog from a bowl that was placed on the side table.

"You're not going after her?" Lily asked, quite concerned at the state her best friend was in. Regardless of the fact that she spent most of her time with James, the last thing she wanted was for anyone to say she had been neglecting her best friend, especially when she had been a big part of the reason she was dating the boy she was quite obvious very angry with at the moment.

"What for? So she can chuck another lamp at me?" Sirius asked, crossing his arms and propping his feet up onto the table that was set between the couches. "I'm _Sirius Black_, I pine after _no_ woman --"

"What were you fighting over this time?" Lily asked in an almost maternal tone, returning to her seat next to James and across from Sirius. "Sirius, what were you --"

"You can't blame _me_," he said sourly, looking away defiantly - and Lily briefly thought that if she had been this boy's mother, she might have tossed him out as well, he was that difficult. "I told her I was going to go with her to talk to McGonagall about that stupid Auror training bit --"

"The one in Bulgaria --"

"_That's _the one." Sirius affirmed, jabbing a finger towards Lily. "I honestly think it's a terrible idea, we all know that she's always wanted to be a teacher - but that's not what we were fighting over. Not once did I tell her the whole time how stupid I think the whole idea is! I simply insisted on _accompanying_ her to McGonagall's office to make sure no one gave her any trouble, and she goes on asking about why I care so much and that I never insisted on _escorting_ any of my previous lady friends anywhere --"

"And you said?" Lily asked, gesturing for Sirius to go on.

"What does it matter what I said? _She_ obviously refused, because she's being bloody stubborn, just like she was being in Hogsmeade, and look what happened to her. You know, if I was this protective over any other girl, they'd be swooning. _Swooning! _But Davie? She's _always_ like this, always acts like she needs to prove summat --"

"So you're going to break up with her?" James asked, raising his eyebrows and glancing at his best friend, who looked back at James as though he had just sprouted another head.

"You're barmy, mate, why would I break up with her?"

"Well, you're completely brassed off with her from the looks of it," James persisted. "Can't stand a single thing she does."

"Because she's being so bleeding _difficult_!" Sirius said, giving the table between them a slight kick before he stood up, storming back up to his room. James, meanwhile, shook his head as he looked back at Lily.

"You know what this means, don't you?" he asked with a heaving sigh.

"They're in love." Lily said, shaking her head breathlessly. "Completely, stubbornly, arse-over-elbows in love."

***

Davie had walked back into the common room nearly an hour later, up the stairs, and into the dormitory - their roommate, Mary Macdonald, had not gone home for the holidays but appeared to have gone out with yet another boy, as she was conspicuously absent. At the time, James and Sirius had already gone out - James had received a rather curious owl saying that someone could help them catch whoever had attacked them in Hogsmeade and that they were to meet in the Forest. Lily had fervently warned against it, but the boys had gone off anyway -- James had insisted that Sirius simply needed to get his mind off of things, even if it meant getting into a bit of a scrap.

"Davie."

"Mm."

"_Davie_."

"Mm."

Lily gave a harrumph, walked over to Davie's bed, and yanked the parchment she had been writing her essay on, causing the dark-haired girl to leave a long, thin streak of ink across the bottom. Davie looked up at her best friend, looking quite scandalized.

"Davie, aren't you worried?" Lily said, shaking the parchment in her hand at Davie. "Even if you're angry with him, Sirius is still your boyfriend. You really feel comfortable letting them just stroll out into the Forbidden Forest?"

"Well, I want him to let me do what I want without him interfering, so I can't be a hypocrite, can I?" Davie replied nonchalantly.

"Don't you think you're being a bit hard on him --"

"This is _my_ fault?" Davie asked in outrage, sounding very much like Sirius had in the common room when they'd confronted him; they were quite a bit more compatible than they even knew, and they were equally infuriating. "You know, you're lucky! James has told _you_ he loved you --"

"Is that what this is about?" Lily asked in exasperation, tossing her hands up and shaking her head. "That's _all_ you're on about?"

Davie looked down at her hands, a bit embarrassed, and nodded almost imperceptibly, and Lily sighed, sitting down at the foot of her friend's bed.

"Come on, we're going to go out after them," Lily said resolutely. "Before they go and do something stupid - and you know they will," Lily added. "They might get themselves eaten out in the forest or something." Getting up to move towards the door, Lily slipped into her shoes before Davie stopped her.

"We can't go into the corridors, Pringle is out prowling again, remember?" Davie said, getting up quickly and getting into her shoes as well, grabbing her wand from the bedside table and slipping it into the pocket of her robes. She glanced over at the window -- it was _rather_ high, but…

Lily's eyes widened -- she had grown accustomed to leaving the tower past curfew on occasion. It simply could not be avoided when you were James Potter's girlfriend. However, she had never, _never_ tried leaving out of the dormitory window. It was simply unheard of for the Head Girl to be caught in such questionable behavior. However, Davie did have a point in pointing out that they wouldn't be able to catch up to the boys if they happened to get caught in the corridors. It was certainly quite a reversal to have Davie coming up with the ideas instead of following along, but she had been doing so considerably more often lately. One good thing that came out of dating Sirius, as it turned out, was that Davie was growing a bit more of a spine.

"I'll get you down first," Davie said, pulling her wand back out and nodding towards the window, opening it with a flick of her wrist. "Come on, Lily, hurry up -- I've been practicing."

Lily gingerly walked over to the window, and -- surprisingly, the way down to the ground, even at Davie's hands, was rather smooth. She _had_ been practicing her charmswork, even more than Lily had expected, to the point that she was rather good.

When they had both arrived safely on the ground, they ducked around a bit to avoid being noticed by Hagrid before reaching the edge of the Forbidden Forest. Then they glanced at one another nervously - they'd heard many a horror story about what sorts of things lived in the forest surrounding the school, and had never felt compelled to venture inwards before.

"Stay close -- we might get eaten or something if we split up," Davie nodded. The two girls walked into the treeline side by side. They stalked around through fallen branches and thick underbrush, with only the light at the end of their wands to illuminate their way.

"I don't think this is working," Lily said quietly. "The forest is huge, we may never find them --"

"_EXPELLIARMUS!_"

From somewhere in the distance, someone had yelled a disarming spell, and the pair of outraged yells that followed caused Lily and Davie to look at one another in fear before bursting into a run towards the source of the sound - the boys were unarmed and being attacked.

"--_think you're such bleeding heroes, don't you -- think you're so great -- you don't know -- never will _--"

"Going to kill us, Snape? Going to --"

"_Relashio_!"

Davie nearly choked at the sound of Sirius' familiar laugh, followed by Snape's spell and a loud bang - the two girls could do nothing except run faster.

"_You think_," Snape continued, "you think you're such a hero, Potter, you're _wrong_ -- and no one sees through you -- _Flagrate!_"

The girls finally saw a burst of light, not too far - a burst of fire that had no doubt come from Snape's wand. The burst lasted for a good few seconds, moving and whipping around a bit, before the sound of footsteps signaled that Snape had fled. Noting that the flame had not gone out but rather intensified, the girls decided against pursuing Snape and hurried towards the fire as well.

"They don't have wands -- _Aguamenti!_" Lily said, sounding incredibly fearful as the found themselves facing a wall of fire; the boys must have been encircled by the flames Snape had conjured. Lily was overcome with disbelief that someone she had once considered her best friend had fallen this far. "_AGUAMENTI!_" she repeated, whipping her wand at the flames again, but the single jet of water was hardly enough to actually make a large dent in the size of the flames.

Davie, on the other hand, was nearly paralyzed at the sight of the flames - they were high, taller than all of them, and whipped and licked the air loudly. This, Davie thought fearfully, was what her parents must have felt like, this was what they must have seen. Simply flames everywhere, thick smoke…

"I'm going to go inside!" Davie said loudly, and she had to wave her hand to dispel Lily's protests towards the idea. "Keep working and I'll get the boys out --"

"Davie! Lily!" came James' voice from inside the circle of flames. "What are you --"

"Shut up, will you?!" Davie yelled over the roar of the crackling fire as she shed her outer robes in favor of the shirt and skirt underneath - she was certainly not as skilled a witch as Lily, but if Davie was good at anything, it was doing dangerous, reckless things. And whatever she had planned, Lily, could tell, was going to being as dangerous and reckless as it came. "You'll only inhale more smoke that way -- _Impervius!_"

Davie had tapped her wand onto her own head, inhaled deeply, then rolled into the clearing through the wall of flames before her mind could get the better of her gall. When she emerged on the other side, nearly, running into James in the process, she stood up, her hair slightly singed and her face lightly dusted with dark soot, pointing her wand at him --

"No!" James said loudly, holding his hand up haltingly. "Sirius _first_!"

Feeling a bit of a loop in her gut, Davie turned slightly on the ball of her foot and her eyes widened at the sight of Sirius bleeding from a cut on his head, slumped against a nearby tree.

"_Impervius! Impervius_!" Davie yelled, pointing first at Sirius, then and James. "Take him out, I'll work on the flames from this side -- Lily's waiting," Davie said, shielding her eyes from the embers that were crackling and flying around; she'd already been hit in the cheek, grazing and leaving a long, gash-like burn. "_Go on_!"

James nodded, grabbing his best friend and hoisting him over his shoulder, barging through the wall of flames. He gave a yell to signal that he had reached the other side. Davie, however, remained inside the ring of flames as they struggled to extinguish it.

It seemed to take nearly half an hour using the Aguamenti charm to put out the flames, but by the time they had died down and Lily and Davie could properly see one another, they were both looking exhausted and off-color, and Davie, especially, was covered in dark soot and cuts; the bottom hem of her skirt was singed.

Crisis having been finally averted, Lily ran immediately to James, throwing her arms around him and hugging him tightly.

"_Oh_," she said, looking quite on the verge of tears. "James Potter, I _told _you this wasn't going to turn out well! That's the last time I _ever_ let you do anything like this, that's the end of it!"

Davie, meanwhile, knelt down next to Sirius who was now only just stirring. He shakily groped at the cut on his forehead before Davie gently swatted his hand away.

"_Episkey_," she said, pointing her wand at the cut on his head, which sewed itself up, leaving only the slowly drying blood on the surface. "I swear, if you ever -- _ever_ scare me like that again, I might just kill you myself."

"Aren't you going to run after Snape and make sure he's alright? He may have given himself a hangnail while trying to kill us - why do you care that I've nearly cracked my head open?" Sirius groaned, wiping his head with his sleeve and propping himself up onto his forearms. Davie rolled her eyes slightly at the irony of everything suddenly being reversed. "You could've done worse than this, you know. You chucked a lamp at me --"

"I _care_," Davie interrupted, smirking slightly, "because I _love _you, you prat."

And suddenly, Sirius Black was _very _much conscious -- he sat up straighter, leaning his face close to Davie's and squinting at her as though her face were a textbook with terribly tiny print.

"Davie," he muttered. "I think I hit my head a bit hard back there, I could have sworn you just said --"

"I love you," she repeated with an impish grin. Lily and James, still in one another's arms, glanced at one another and gave a sigh of relief. "I love you, Sirius, and I _was_ waiting for you to say it first, but since you nearly went and got yourself killed --"

"I love _you_." Sirius interrupted quickly, causing Davie to freeze mid-sentence. "Blimey, woman, I thought you'd have figured that out by now. If you'd just asked --"

"Well, I shouldn't _have_ to ask, Sirius --"

"Do we need to argue?"

"Are we arguing?"

"I, ah --" Sirius said, scratching the back of his neck. "We _weren't _a moment ago, but --"

"Padfoot, would you just belt up and kiss the girl already?" James laughed, giving Lily's shoulders a squeeze; Lily had a hand over her mouth to cover the fact that despite what they had just gone through, she was snickering almost uncontrollably at the pair.

"_If the lady insists_," Sirius beamed, reaching out and tilting Davie's chin, pressing his lips to hers.

***

_A/N's_

_And they've finally said it!_

_**Padfoot'sPixie**__, well, Snape sure knows how to get back at someone, doesn't he? Not much of a sympathetic figure anymore now, I'm afraid. Thank you again for the review!_

_And __**xxCrazyxChickxx **__thank you for your long review! I'm glad you like the way I've been writing Davie, I wasn't sure how people would like her, to be honest. Hope you enjoy this chapter and the chapters to come!_

_Next chapter, we'll have some romantic fluff to make up for all the arguing Sirius and Davie have been doing, followed by a big development that involves this generation's "grown ups" so to speak. Stay tuned! Cheers!_


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter Seventeen**

_December the Twenty-Fifth, Nineteen-Seventy-Seven_

"Davie," Lily whispered, moving over and shaking her friend awake. Davie rubbed her eyes groggily and patted lazily at her hair, which was curling up a bit on one side from having slept on it. It was dark out, Davie judged that it could only be around four or five in the morning. "Come on, Davie, someone's here to see you."

"Here to -- see me?" Davie asked, her question punctuated by a yawn. She received her answer, however, when she looked up at the window to the dormitory, which was closest to Lily's bed, and spotted a small circle of light coming from a wand. Then, she noticed the wand was held by none other than Sirius Black, seated on a broomstick.

"Hurry up now, before Mary wakes up," Lily laughed, tugging her friend out of bed and nudging her towards the open window. "You know how she does fancy Sirius, she just might wet herself if she sees him outside our window. She'll think he's peeping at her."

Just then, their other roommate gave a loud snore, and Davie got up quickly - even still in her nightclothes - and scurried towards the window, stepping out with one foot and peering at her boyfriend.

"You're completely mad, you know that?" she laughed quietly, swinging herself over the back of Sirius' broomstick and wrapping her arms around his waist. "What is this?

"This is a broomstick. It's for flying around and --"

"That's not what I meant."

"This is _Christmas_. It's this sort of holiday where you --"

"Sirius!"

"Would you hush up and stop trying to ruin my surprise?" he said with a chuckle, kicking off of the roof shingles and jetting away from the castle. At this moment, Davie remember exactly why she hated flying -- it was windy and uncomfortable, and she was reasonably sure that her long hair was quite close to poking her eyes out. She had tried out for the Quidditch team in their second year, the year James had first made the team - on Davie's part, it had been just another failed attempt at self-assertion and self-discovery. Her parents, of course, had encouraged her desire to try new things as they always did. Needless to say, she wasn't even good enough to be accepted as equipment manager and never again went anywhere near a broomstick until this morning.

Davie had clenched her eyes tightly shut for the entire brief flight with Sirius - partially because she was unsure about heights, and partially because she frankly did not want any more hair or bits of grass flying into her face. She let out a sigh of relief when her feet touched solid ground. She immediately looked down to see herself standing on flat wood; glancing upward, the colored fabric panels lining the area made it evident even in the dark that they had landed in the stands of the Quidditch pitch.

"Had to get you all to myself," Sirius chuckled, sitting down and lounging backwards on one of the solid benches, slightly damp with the dewy covering of early-morning. He gestured with a sideways tilt of his head for Davie to sit down, and she obliged, eyeing him curiously. He simply grinned. "_Happy Christmas_."

Davie had to squint a bit to see what Sirius had pulled out of the pocket of his robes - she flushed slightly at the fact that he'd at least had a chance to get dressed properly before coming out so early in the morning. All thoughts of her attire, however, were quickly forgotten when a small glint of light caught a small chain that Sirius was dangling from his finger, swinging it coyly in front of Davie.

"S'your Christmas present -- but if you want it, you're going to have to come and get it."

Davie laughed, leaning over and eyeing Sirius coyly, brushing her lips across his jawbone; he gave a slight gulp at the action, a move that required gall that Davie Maddux frankly was not known for exhibiting, and Davie took advantage of him being so riled up to snatch the piece of jewelry from his hand, retreating back to where she had previously been sitting.

"Well, that wasn't hard," she laughed, holding it up and glancing at it - a delicate gold bracelet with a monogram engraved onto a black onyx plate, an interlocking 'S' and 'D'. Davie looked up at Sirius questioningly.

"You're not going to ask me what it stands for, are you?" he chuckled, "Because if you need to, I'd have to wonder how your marks placed so high --"

"Typical. Just typical," Davie laughed with a wrinkle of her nose -- she was referring not to the present, of course, since it was anything _but_ typical coming from Sirius Black, but to the fact that he was so nonchalant about giving such a sentimental gift. From another boy, from a sentimental sort of boy, it would be cliché and warrant a roll of the eyes, but from Sirius Black, it was the equivalent of receiving a shrunken head as a gift.

"You should, ah--" Sirius began, reaching out and taking it from her hand. "Here, you ought to let me put it on you. Merlin knows you're not coordinated enough to do it one hand, you'd drop it --"

"Real charmer, you are," Davie laughed sarcastically, extending her hand for Sirius to place it around her wrist. She had by now grown accustomed to the sort of teasing dynamic they could never seem to shake, even as a couple. "Now I see why all the girls are so madly smitten with you, you're so polite and --"

"Bloody handsome --"

"_Language_," Davie chided with a lopsided smirk as Sirius finished with the clasp. Momentarily, she was unsure of how to react to such a sentimental moment, with such an unsentimental Sirius Black. She raised her wrist a bit to look at the bracelet, tracing it musingly with her finger before looking up at her boyfriend, who looked quite pleased with himself indeed.

"So you agree."

"Agree?" Davie asked, pushing a bit of hair from in front of her eyes. "With the fact that you're handsome?"

"You're a smart witch, I'll give you a moment. I don't think the implications of a gift like that ought to escape you," Sirius said, stretching and cracking his neck a bit haughtily; Davie rolled her eyes a bit, but leaned closer and gestured for him to elaborate. "Considering, you know, I'd like for us to be together for -- quite a while," he began with a lopsided grin. "And you'd like to go on to that ruddy Auror training bit in Bulgaria --"

"_Ruddy Auror training bit_," Davie repeated, a slight scoff present in her voice. "Is that what you're always going to call it? It's only four months --"

"Four months in Bulgaria," Sirius pointed out, hushing the girl by placing a finger over her lips. "And you know what's in Bulgaria?"

"Bul--Bulgarians?" Davie provided hesitantly, earning a pointed stare from Sirius.

"_Durmstrang_." He said simply, as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. "Durmstrang! And those bleeding hormonal Bulgarian gits --"

"As opposed to the bleeding hormonal gits we have right _here_," Davie asked, swatting Sirius' hand away from her face. "Sirius, would you just come out with it already? You're _jealous_ --"

"Jealous," Sirius scoffed. "I'm never jealous. Green isn't my color at all - s'why I'd never be able to step foot into Slytherin. I'm merely suggesting," he began, gesturing a bit with his hand before looking back at Davie, "that we _mutually_ agree not to see other people while you're away. I'm only doing this for _your_ sake," he added, looking away from Davie a bit. "You know. So you don't worry --"

"That's very kind of you, I accept." Davie laughed, gently reaching out and turning his face back to her. She hadn't honestly expected him to come out with the fact that he was worried about Davie meeting other boys, it simply was not in his nature. It would be better to simply humor him and put him out of his misery. Davie leaned over, kissing his lips. This certainly was shaping up to be a very nice Christmas.

Later on, Sirius and Davie opted to go in through the Entrance Hall rather than leaving Davie at Gryffindor Tower and risking being seen and questioned by Mary Macdonald; the girl was apt to be so jealous that she'd tell Mr. Pringle that they'd been out. Sirius put the broom back in the Quidditch supply shed, and he and Davie scurried into the school through the large wooden doors. They were met, however, not by the empty entryway, but by Professors McGonagall and Dumbledore, with Lily and James standing behind them.

"We, ah--" Sirius stammered in surprise. "We were -- there was a --"

"You may keep your excuses to yourself, Mr. Black" McGonagall said, not sounding angry at the pair at all, even if they had been caught sneaking around. "The headmaster and I would, however, like you to come with us."

Davie and Sirius glanced worriedly at one another before the professors swept forward down the hallway; the four teenagers continued on behind them. None of them seemed to have any clue what was happening. Davie began wringing at the hems of her sleeves as they passed by the various tapestries leading to Professor Dumbledore's office.

"Treacle fudge," McGonagall said, obviously stating the password to Dumbledore's office -- immediately, the statue of the oversized hippogriff moved to reveal the staircase, where they all filed quietly in.

"Remus!" Davie said aloud, stepping into the room first and seeing that Remus, Peter, and many others were standing in the room as well. "Remus, what are you --"

"You have _all _been called here," Dumbledore said, shutting the door behind him - at the same time, Fawkes swooped in through the window, settling down on his perch to the group's amazement; phoenixes were a rare sight, especially one as fine as Fawkes. "To receive an invitation."

A glance around the room would show a fair few people. Some were schoolmates, including Edgar Bones, Frank Longbottom and his girlfriend, Alice Dorsey, with whom Davie was familiar because they were both planning on becoming Aurors. There were others, older than the Marauders, Lily, and Davie -- among them were Molly and Arthur Weasley, a married couple that had graduated from the school, and Benjy Fenwick, a good-looking boy that had graduated the same year that the Marauders had entered school (Lily remembered him well, considering she had fancied him terribly).

"Many of you have seen firsthand, the uprising of Dark Magic that has been plaguing us in recent years," Dumbledore said gravely; Fawkes gave a loud coo, as if in agreement. "It has been kept quiet, but we have known for a long time that our enemies grow closer and closer every day. Some are already in our midst."

Dumbledore spared a glance toward James and Sirius, and to the other boys -- it was evident he knew very well the trouble they had all gotten into. Davie looked particularly pale at the mention of Dark Magic. Lily looked outraged and anxious all at once.

"Because their numbers are growing," Dumbledore continued, looking everyone in the room in the eye by turn as they all stared in rapt attention, "then so must ours. Some of you are only just coming of age," he said, sparing a glance towards those among them that were still students, "but I feel that you, even more than others, are prepared to make a decision if you should so desire. I extend you all my encouragement to join --"

Dumbledore extended his arm, and Fawkes kicked off from his perch, crowing and doing a short lap around the room in a blaze of gold and ochre and crimson before landing on his master's sleeve.

"-- _the Order of the Phoenix_."

"I accept."

"Me."

"I'm in."

Professor McGonagall looked both impressed and fearful when three of her students were the very first to volunteer, immediately, without hesitation: James Potter, Lily Evans, and Davina Maddux. James Potter, brave and honorable beyond his years despite his liking for mischief. Lily Evans, a gifted young woman of Muggle heritage who was among those most threatened by the rise of Dark wizards. Davina Maddux, a girl with a family to avenge and many of her own gifts to discover apart from her friends. McGonagall, who had always been fond of Davie's strong work ethic, worried for the dark-haired girl the most out of the three -- because while she was dedicated and gifted, McGonagall had always seen her fear of failure, of standing on her own.

"The Death Eaters," Dumbledore continued, not responding to the youths for the time being, "are led by a powerful wizard by the name of Lord Voldemort, a man whose mastery of his craft, while gruesome, may have yet to be matched by _any_ witch or wizard. Their aim is eradication. Destruction --"

"_Purification_," Sirius added, his face looking unusually solemn as though these were words with which he was unbearably familiar. His family would, he expected, be in lieu with this sort. Dumbledore gave him a respectful nod.

"I will give any of you the option of leaving, with my trust that even if you refuse my offer, our secret is safe," Dumbledore continued. "But I will ask that if you would like to leave, you do so now."

Everyone in the room glanced around at one another, silently asking one another if they planned to stay -- Peter Pettigrew, in particular, pointedly glanced at the door once or twice, almost pleading for one of his friends to exit so that perhaps he might dare. None of them did.

Frank locked eyes with Alice. Arthur locked eyes with Molly. James locked eyes with Lily. Sirius locked eyes with Davie. There was a momentary, silent plea present in these stares, as though they were begging one another to make the safe choice and leave. None of them did.

"I can't leave," Molly Weasley said, the first of the group to speak up after Dumbledore's statement of the conditions of his offer. "We can't. Think of our children, Arthur."

"I know," Arthur Weasley agreed. "For Bill and Charlie. We'll fight for our boys."

"My mum would just _die_," Sirius added with a tame chuckle. "There's no way I'd let this opportunity pass." He slapped palms with James and Remus, who both nodded in agreement.

"Mister Potter, Mister Lupin, Miss Maddux," Professor Dumbledore said, gesturing for the three to approach him to speak. Davie glanced over her shoulder towards Sirius before following the others across the room to Dumbledore, who addressed them in a quiet, private voice. "Your families have long been involved with the Ministry of Magic, and work -- I'm sure you know -- rarely remains _at _work. You three, I am sure, are more aware than the others of the implications of this decision," Dumbledore stated. Davie could not help but gulp audibly, and Dumbledore turned a warm eye towards her. "Especially you, Miss Maddux. This war, I'm afraid, has affected you deeply before many have even learned that it has started. You three are especially responsible, however, for making sure your friends are aware of what joining us may cost you all."

"That we might die, you mean," Davie said bluntly, her expression unwavering though it caused a flinch even from Professor McGonagall; this certainly was not the same lisping, cowering girl that had first been sorted into Gryffindor when she was eleven years old, and wanted to be a teacher. This was certainly not the same girl who would agree to nothing without seeing that her best friend, Lily, had agreed to it first. She had been changed by the war already, and she didn't even realize it.

"Why did you ask Lily to join?" James asked suddenly. "I don't want her involved in this, she'll be in danger and --"

"Mr. Potter," Dumbledore interrupted, holding up his hand to silence the boy. "I understand your concern - but also understand that the greatest power we possess lies in our ability to stand together -- together with the people we _love_. That is where our strength will lie."

James nodded silently, crossing his arms over his chest and glancing over his shoulder at Lily, who was a bit further back, speaking with Remus. The misgivings he possessed about the girl he loved being thrust into the middle of a _war_ were something he could not hide, but he could not find it in himself to distrust Dumbledore. It could not be done.

Davie looked back over her shoulder at Sirius, and it seemed that he was waiting for her attention. She excused herself and walked back over to him, staring attentively.

"You realize this is a bit more important now?" he said, his nonchalance seeming far less natural than usual at this moment as he gently tapped the bracelet he had only hours ago placed on Davie's wrist. "It means you can't just go tripping and falling and getting yourself blown up - even in Bulgaria, without me there to watch out for you."

"Tactful, Sirius," Davie replied with a sarcastic laugh. "That's what you are. _So very _tactful."

"It appears we are settled for the moment," Professor Dumbledore said, gaining everyone's attention yet again. "But do not be mistaken -- we will all be convening again. When, I'm afraid, I cannot yet say. I can only request that you all be prepared. Until then, I leave you to enjoy your Christmas."

Davie let out a breath and made her way towards the door, but Sirius immediately grabbed her by the forearm, stopping her and allowing everyone to pass by her. "I have something important to, ah -- something important to ask you."

Davie blinked unsurely -- what was he going to ask right after something like this? Would it be something brash or impulsive? Knowing Sirius, the idea was not so farfetched. It was almost guaranteed, actually - but along with the territory came the fact that it would no doubt be something unexpected.

"Y-yes?" Davie stammered, her mind reeling with the possibilities of what he might say.

"Davie…" he said, his face going terribly solemn so that it made Davie's stomach jump up into her throat. "This has all made me think. About -- about us. When are you --"

"When am I…?"

"-- going to give me my Christmas present?"

Davie blinked in disbelief as a wicked grin burst onto Sirius Black's face - she reached out and swatted him hard across the arm, squealing in frustration.

"Never!" Davie yelped jokingly as they descended the staircase behind the hippogriff statue. "After that trick, _never --_"

As the young ones left, Dumbledore glanced at Professor McGonagall with a smile that the woman could not quite grasp -- how could he be happy, she wondered, at the thought of these children, who were still clearly not even grown yet, being subjected to the war that they had not even asked for? What could possibly please him about making these wonderful boys and girls that they had cared for since they were tiny grow up so fast?

"Those children," Dumbledore stated knowingly, without Minerva McGonagall even having to ask. The twinkle in his kind eyes only slightly obstructed by his spectacles was clear as day. "May be the greatest hope we have of defeating this evil. Mark my words, Minerva. It will be the young ones. Because of them…"

Dumbledore sighed distantly for a reason that McGonagall could not decipher, and gave Fawkes a gentle stroke.

"…_everything will change_."

***

_A/N's_

_Hee! Had to throw fluff into the chapter - hopefully I didn't make anyone puke with it. I personally actually really love writing these brief Dumbledore bits, though I'm sure I don't write the best fanfic interpretation of Dumbledore. Anyway, the Order of the Phoenix has officially come into being!_

_To __**xxCrazyxChickxx**__, it's refreshing to know that people like the way that Davie is with Sirius - I've actually gotten a few private messages (not reviews) about people saying that I'm too mean to him. I also agree that "I love you" scenes are often corny. As far as Snape goes, he comes up even more later on; I actually had a James/Severus confrontation scene that I wrote for later chapters, though I'm still flip-flopping on including it. We'll just have to wait and see!_

_**Padfoot'sPixie**__, I understand your anger towards Snape, haha! And I tend to get equally as caught up, even though I'm the one writing it and pulling the strings, so to speak._

_Thank you also to __**XVampWitchCatX **__for subscribing! Hope you're enjoying!_

_Next chapter will consist of someone else popping up that's previously been in our story, plus a somewhat deeper Sirius/Davie heart to heart. Hope you ALL stick around! Cheers!_


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter Eighteen**

_Early February, Nineteen-Seventy-Eight_

Ever since becoming Sirius Black's girlfriend, Davie rarely went anywhere on her own - Sirius, it turned out, was protective to a level that seemed appropriate to his Animagus form; after past incidents, Sirius kept a watchful eye on his girlfriend as though she would at any moment, as he had once put it, 'trip, fall, and land on the wrong end of a Death Eater's wand.'

Today, however, Davie was torn between feeling lonely and relieved to be sitting by herself at a table at the Three Broomsticks for a short while. James, Lily, Remus, and Peter were still at Scrivenshaft's to replace their quills and other supplies, and Sirius had been held up at the castle by Apollyon Pringle after having been caught setting off a Dungbomb near the Slytherin dungeons. This left Davie, sipping on a gillywater and skimming over her Charms textbook, her tan eagle quill tucked into her hair which was gathered into a bun.

"Funny sight, this is. You always hated Charms when we were seeing one another."

Davie looked up and had no words on hand for the particular situation in which she had found herself: facing Romnic Digby. In fact, the pair hadn't spoken at length for a terribly long time, certainly not all year. Moreover, with the events of the past few months and the sort with which she had seen her former beau associating, Davie was unsure of whether or not she wanted to speak with him at all.

"All right, Davie?" he asked hesitantly, walking over and leaning slightly at the table, brushing his sandy-colored hair out of his handsome eyes with the heel of his hand -- Davie recognized this as something that had always been one of his nervous habits.

"Bugger off, Romnic," she replied, looking back down at her book and waving dismissively. "I don't want to--"

"You're doing fine, then?" Romnic asked, overlooking her dismissal and sitting across from her, on the other side of the dark oak table. He leaned across the surface, resting his forearms at the edge. "After --"

Davie scoffed when his voice trailed off -- the simple hesitation was confirmation of what Davie had suspected, that he had been involved in the attacks on Hogsmeade, and even worse, he hardly had the spine to own up to them. "I tried to stop Mulciber as fast as I could, Severus and I both," he said quietly, his eyes darting about shiftily. He was obviously worried, Davie realized, of being seen speaking with her. "I hadn't expected him to use _that_ spell --"

"I'm in one piece still, aren't I?" Davie said, tracing her finger nervously around the edge of her glass. "So your questions are all answered, is that better?"

"You've changed quite a bit since fourth year. Never foresaw you jumping into the fray," Romnic said suddenly; his voice was tight as though he had hiccoughed the words out of his throat. He attempted to laugh when Davie eyed him questioningly. "This -- _all this _-- is one conversation I never expected to be having you."

"You and I both, Rom," Davie replied, crossing her arms over herself - her distrust, her _distaste_ for him after learning what he'd done, was evident. Davie had still considered him a friend all this time, and he'd managed to keep this from her. She suddenly understood very much how Lily had felt, being betrayed by Severus. "I never expected this from _you_ -- but I suppose I ought to have known better than to trust a Slytherin. No good ever comes of it."

Romnic suddenly looked a bit hurt by Davie's words, and the girl gave a sigh at the doleful expression on his face at her unwillingness to speak with him - Of course he would always be _Rom_. They had been close for a good while, even after they had dated. They _had_ been friends - though really, they remained that way only because of the fact that Davie's family was of notably Pureblood lineage that Rom's Slytherin colleagues allowed him to get away with it.

"Sirius and the others will be here any moment," Davie said, lifting her gaze from her book and looking Romnic in the eye - he looked tired, though no less handsome, and moreover genuinely concerned about Davie, which surprised her greatly. He seemed to slump back in defeat at the mention of Davie's current boyfriend. He knew that it was Davie's roundabout way of requesting his departure.

"Ah. Right," Romnic said with a huff, standing up from his seat and looking away from Davie. "Well -- Pettigrew told me you were doing just fine but I wanted to see for myself, is all." He paused, then shook his head with a chuckle. "Right, then. Stay out of trouble, little lady."

Davie gave a weak laugh -- 'little lady' had been his nickname for her in the five brief months they had dated in their fourth year. Further review of what he had just said, however, drew something else to Davie's attention.

"Pettigrew? _Peter_ Pettigrew?" she asked. The fact she had spoken up caused Romnic to halt suddenly, almost catching his foot in the throw rug on the floor as he turned around. "Since when does Peter talk to -- to any of _you_?"

"He, ah--" Romnic paused, as though there was something he wanted to tell Davie. It certainly was unusual for Peter to talk to anyone that James Potter hated, and James Potter most definitely hated Romnic Digby by virtue of his questionable associations. But what he was planning on saying, Davie would never hear, as Romnic quickly looked up and nodded in greeting somewhere behind Davie. "Wotcher, Black."

Sure enough, Sirius had walked in through the door and immediately caught sight of Romnic Digby hovering around his girlfriend. He immediately nudged past brusquely and sat in the seat Romnic had erstwhile occupied. In response to the fair-haired boy's greeting, he gave a careless grunt and nod.

"I'll be going," Romnic Digby said, clearing his throat and hurrying out the door, leaving Davie with a very annoyed Sirius Black.

"'Wos he doing over here?" Sirius asked suspiciously, pushing Davie's glass of gillywater out of the way, scratching across the table a bit.

"He was just worrying about me, after -- well, you know," Davie said dismissively, immediately pulling her glass back towards her in defiance. "D'you know that Wormtail's been talking to him about us? He knows we don't trust that lot, why would --"

"Worrying about you -- not really Dingbat's job anymore, is it?" Sirius scoffed, rolling his eyes. Davie huffed in concession, taking a sip from her gillywater and reclining a bit in her chair. "He was probably trying to get information out of you about --"

"Are you even listening?" Davie interrupted, lowering her glass with a loud clink and leaning across the table towards Sirius. "Isn't Peter _always_ with us? When does he have time to go speak with --"

"We're not talking about Wormtail --"

"_I'm _talking about Wormtail!" Davie said in a low, frustrated tone. Sirius, however, would hear nothing of anything else except for why Romnic Digby was suddenly so concerned about his girlfriend.

"I don't suppose you recall that he tried to kill your friends," Sirius said sourly, drumming his fingers impatiently on the surface of the table. "Honorable intentions, Davie, but honestly, do you need to forgive everyone? Do you need to be on good terms with _everyone_?"

"It would be nice," Davie said airily, crossing her arms. "I don't think we need to fight over this, he was simply checking up on me --"

"He doesn't need to check up on _my_ girlfriend. D'you think Mary Macdonald would entertain her ex-boyfriends checking up on her if I was dating _her_?"

"I don't doubt it!" Davie retorted with a derisive chuckle. "Honestly, if you'd like to see for yourself, you're more than welcome --"

"Would I be getting like this if I wanted to break things off with you?" Sirius said in exasperation, grabbing the glass of gillywater and slamming it slightly on the opposite side of the table. "Honestly, Davie! I'm only getting like this because --"

"Getting like what?" Davie interrupted, her expression slightly going impish rather than infuriated. "Jealous? Sirius Black --"

"Again with this," Sirius said, rolling his eyes, though well-humored this time. "I told you already - I never get _jealous_."

It would seem for the time being that the pair of them were doing fine for the rest of the day - after meeting up with the others, they spent the remainder of the Hogsmeade trip getting along quite well. By the time they had boarded the carriages back to the school, Davie was back to using Sirius as a backrest as was her habit, and Sirius had his arm draped lazily over her shoulders, tossing the contents of a package of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans into the air and catching them in his mouth.

"You play a good game of fetch, _Padfoot_," Davie laughed, pelting him with a popcorn-flavoured bean as they walked into past the portrait of the Fat Lady and entered the Gryffindor Common Room; Sirius ducked, and the bean skittered to the floor. "Here have another!"

Davie raised her arm to chuck a curiously colored bean at Sirius when she noticed a dark auburn barn owl swoop in through the nearby window - she hadn't noticed it approaching, considering it was already dark outside. She paused when the owl landed on the table in front of her, turning its big yellow eyes toward her and giving a series of hoots.

"For me?" Davie asked, leaning over near the school owl and untying the letter from its leg. Undoing the green string, she unrolled the letter just as the others settled into a sort of semi-circle around her.

_Davie,_

_We need to speak to one another about the incident at Hogsmeade last year. It's urgent._

_Greenhouse Three. Come alone._

_Rom_

Davie blinked unsurely at the letter - it was clearly written in Romnic Digby's hand, as she had often commented on his remarkably neat penmanship ever since they were young -- a Slytherin trait, she jokingly called it.

"I think you know better than to respond to vague invitations you receive via owl post," James said, reaching over and plucking the parchment out of Davie's hands gently. "For all we know, they're all playing another trick on us -- first Snape tries to roast us, maybe now Digby's going to try and drown you. Or throw you off the top of a tree --"

"Well, I'm curious," Davie said defiantly, though she directed her response towards her boyfriend more than anyone. "If you're all so worried then you can come along, can't you?"

Sure enough, Sirius would never have allowed Davie to go alone anyway -- Remus and Peter agreed to keep watch by the window of the common room, considering the fact that four nearly-eighteen-year-old Marauders and Lily Evans would have a terrible time trying to fit underneath James' Invisibility Cloak. Meanwhile, James, Sirius, and Lily followed behind Davie to make sure she wouldn't run into any unexpected surprises, the way she often did.

They made it out of the Entrance Hall and onto the grounds -- Davie ducked behind a planter box briefly at the sight of light still in Hagrid's hut at the edge of the grounds, but quickly gathered the gall to scurry past and reach the greenhouses.

Romnic had no doubt, Davie mused, chosen Greenhouse three because it was in the precise center of all the greenhouses, meaning it was far easier to hide. The only thing Davie could note about the location at present, however, was that it was disconcertingly quiet. Romnic was always a consummate gentleman to her, and a gentleman did not keep a lady waiting -- had he not been the one who requested their meeting?

Davie crossed her arms and took a few steps forward in the space in front of Greenhouse Three -- her foot landed on something that rolled and caused her to stumble so that she had to stick her hand out to brace herself against the supply shed. Crouching down slightly, her forehead crinkled at the realization that it was a wand on the ground. It mostly belonged to one of the first years. Possibly a Muggleborn that still had not gotten the hang of carrying a wand all the time - Davie remembered the days well, back when even Lily had to occasionally be reminded to pick her wand up from her bedside table before going to class.

Further examination, however, yielded that it was made of oak, and bore a Slytherin crest on one face of its hilt, and a monogram reading 'RD' on the other. And then she noticed the sensation of the wood beneath her other hand.

It was dark out already, and so, difficult to see anything with much clarity, but Davie's stomach immediately seemed to drop when she glanced at the surface of her hand. Her pale skin was glazed with something dark and sticky. Blood.

"_Rom_?!" Davie called out, wheeling around and looking around in the darkness. At the sight of Davie's panic, her friends came out from under the cloak, running over to her. "Romnic, come out here _now, _this isn't funny!"

"Someone's been hurt -- I'll call Dumbledore," Lily said in panic, looking down at Davie's hand then sprinting back toward the school as the boys continued looking around warily, making sure no one was lingering around waiting to attack them. All was quiet here. Whatever had happened, had happened a good while before they had arrived.

Davie could not tell how long it took for Professor Dumbledore to arrive on the scene -- seconds, or minutes, or perhaps seconds on the minute -- but her gaze was glued to her hand. They all assured her that they could not know for sure at the moment, but she was convinced that this was Romnic's blood.

"He was -- he was going to tell me something about what happened at Hogsmeade, he was only trying to help me," Davie said, shaking her head. "He told me he'd been worried about me --"

"Davie, we don't _know_ what really happened to him," Lily said, gripping her friend's shoulder gently as Dumbledore gestured for them all to go back inside. "We can't jump to conclusions, for all we know, he might just have never come out, or sent someone else, or --"

"It must have been Avery -- Avery didn't want him to tell," Davie said quickly. This, after all, was something she would never put past him. It was something she would quite honestly expect from _any_ of them. "I should have let him say what he wanted to say, Rom was so nervous when he spoke to me at Hogsmeade --"

"Maybe he was nervous because he was trying to chat up someone else's girlfriend --"

"_Sirius_," Davie hissed angrily. "You can't be sensitive at all, _can you_?"

Davie could not sleep for that entire night. She couldn't finish the last five inches of her Charms essay, and she certainly could not stomach breakfast the next morning when Professor Dumbledore made the announcement from his seat at the High Table that a student had gone missing, and that in light of this, the upcoming dance for the upperclassmen was cancelled. Davie glared across the room at the Slytherin table - was it just her, or did Avery and his lot not even seem concerned that one of their friends was missing?

"Shouldn't they be more bothered by all of this?" Davie asked in frustration as they all filed out of the Great Hall and towards their respective classrooms. "But they were just sitting there eating as though --"

"It's breakfast," Sirius said, rolling his eyes. "What else is someone supposed to do at _breakfast_? Honestly, Davie, you act as though your boyfriend is the one who's gone missing but in case you've gone blind, I'm still _right_ here."

"It's _Romnic_," Davie explained in exasperation. Glancing around, Davie tugged Sirius into an alcove behind a tapestry and lit the end of her wand. She certainly didn't want to have this conversation with him in the middle of the corridor while everyone was on their way to class. "You know who I'm _talking_ about? The first boy I ever dated? The first boy I ever _kissed_ --"

"I had no idea he was _so_ memorable for you --"

"Are you really going to get jealous over this, Sirius?" Davie asked, eyes glimmering angrily and struggling to keep her voice down. "It's not enough for you that I'm with you now? You have to be the only person in my life that matters? Doesn't matter that Rom's been a good friend to me --"

"A good Death Eater friend," Sirius scoffed, rolling his eyes. "Yeah. Great chums you both have been lately. That's certainly the type _I'd_ like to cozy up to as well. Are you going to do that when you're an Auror too? Working _undercover_ --"

"I'm not allowed to be affected at all for the fact that someone I've been close to for a long time could be _dead_, Sirius?" Davie asked in a dangerously calm, cold voice. "I'm not allowed to feel terrible that he was out there to help _me_ find out what had happened? Forget that I dated him for a moment, I'm not allowed to care that one of my _friends_ could be dead because of me?"

Sirius' jaw clenched visibly on one side - he hated when Davie was correct, or when she had a point at all, if it meant he was the one in the wrong. He understood what she was saying but Merlin be damned, he loathed the fact that she was so concerned about someone that wasn't him. It wasn't even so much that he was angry at her -- but for his entire life…

"D'you wish I was more like him? More Slytherin-like?" Sirius asked, feigning nonchalance. "Just like my mum and brother? Just wishing I would be more of a Slytherin, stop letting everyone down --"

"What are you on about?" Davie asked in exasperation. "This isn't about _you_ Sirius --"

"You would've dated me earlier if I was more like _Rom_, wouldn't you?" he continued. "Because you're just as bad as my mother! Disappointed in me -- bloody hell, I'm sure my mom would swap me for Romnic Digby any hour of the day as well!"

"I'm not _swapping_ you for anyone, Sirius!" Davie said, reaching out and grabbing the front of his shirt and yanking her to face him. "And he's _not_ more important to me than you are, I just didn't think I was expected to _choose_! I didn't think you needed my constant, undivided attention just to convince your ego that you're more important to me!"

"Sure! I'm more important when _I'm _the one who's spent two years pursuing you when you were too embarrassed to even be _mistaken _as my girlfriend! Everyone's humiliated by me!" Sirius said with a harsh laugh. Davie groaned, tilting her head back and clenching her eyes shut momentarily to keep from rolling them.

"Is this even _about_ me, Sirius?" Davie asked, shaking her head at him. "Is this about me or is this about _you_? You and your mother?" She raised her hand and began moving the tapestry out of the way to leave and go to class when Sirius reached out, grabbing her gently by the forearm, pulling he back in. Davie sighed, glancing back at Sirius tiredly as she allowed the tapestry fall back over the entrance to the alcove.

"_Davie_," he said, torn between remorse and exasperation - it simply seemed that the closer they drew to graduation, the more strained things seemed to be getting between them. "Alright. _Alright_, it's not anything you did." Sirius groaned, pushing his hair from his face - he actually seemed to be sweating a bit as though he'd had to run a marathon to arrive at the decision to even talk about this. "But you have to admit -- from where I'm standing --"

"In a hole in the wall behind a tapestry --"

"Now who's interrupting?" Sirius harrumphed sourly. "Anyway, you have to admit - after my own mother sent me packing for not being Slytherin enough to be a Black, it's not exactly music to my ears to hear my girlfriend bawling her eyes out over a Slytherin as well --"

"I'm not _bawling_, I'm just worried!" Davie retorted, trying to restrain her obvious frustration. "It has nothing to do with him _being_ a Slytherin. He _happens _to be a Slytherin, and I liked him a lot at one point. I _love_ you, right _now_."

The side of Sirius' mouth quirked up, and he almost smiled. "So, ah -- if Digby never turns up again?"

Davie grimaced and exhaled quietly, silenced for a moment before shrugging. "I'll be sad. I may cry a bit. I'll _miss_ him," she said honestly. "But if I don't lose you then I haven't come out too shabby, have I?"

Sirius chuckled, tipping the bottom of Davie's chin playfully with the side of his knuckle. "Not too shabby at all, I'd say. I'm quite a catch."

***

_A/N's_

_And another chapter down! I've been much more busy lately, so the updates aren't quite as fast as usual. School is insane lately, and I wanted to make sure I had time to respond the way I always do._

_To __**Padfoot'sPixie**_**, **_sadly, for the most part, this is going to follow the book - meaning at some point, you'll be seeing Sirius in Azkaban, and how Davie responds to it. That's where everything goes nuts._

_To __**dancingqueensillystring**__, Sirius and Davie will end up together one way or another, but I don't want to ruin too much for you all. But the simple answer to your question is yes. It's actually in the chapter I'm working on proofreading right now - which is not going to be the next chapter, but rather, a few chapters down the road._

_Also thanks to __**x romantica**__, and __**MissChristinaBlack, **__for subscribing!v Hope you're enjoying!_

_Look for another update in a matter of days, and hope that my schedule allows me to be more frequent with this! Cheers!_


	19. Chapter 19

**Chapter Nineteen**

_Early June, Nineteen-Seventy-Eight_

"You don't think they'll fail me, will you?" Davie said nervously as she and Sirius walked out of their Charms Practical NEWT -- she was well-prepared for the test as anyone, but because she was so nervous at the prospect of possibly not doing well in what she had always thought to be her worst subject, she took longer than the rest of their friends to finish. Sirius had indicated to James with a nod that he would wait for her, and that the rest of them ought to go on ahead.

"I completely forgot to mention Ulric of Borne's Theory of Levitation - I studied it for at least twenty minutes last night and I didn't even remember," Davie said, groaning as she slapped her forehead lightly with the heel of her hand. "You don't think they'll dock points for it, do you?"

"_Davie_ --"

"They _wouldn't_, I'm sure, I spent at least six inches talking about the incident with Hebbler Haffernan and the --"

Davie's rant was cut off by Sirius grabbing her playfully by the robes and planting a sound kiss on her lips, right in the middle of the crowded hallway, simply to shut her up. She pulled back and cleared her throat, laughing shiftily as she noticed a fair number of eyes on them now; she swatted Sirius playfully on the shoulder before looping his arm through his as they made their way to the Entrance Hall.

People had by now grown accustomed to Sirius Black and Davie Maddux -- people no longer accused her of putting a love potion in his pumpkin juice every night, in any case. After multiple trips to the infirmary, the attacks on Hogsmeade, the girls had to grudgingly admit that perhaps Sirius Black was in love with this girl. It did not, however, stop them from occasionally rolling their eyes in envy at the fact that the couple looked quite stereotypical indeed, the way they were constantly strolling around the grounds together, holding hands around the lake.

It had been slightly strange for Davie and Sirius for a short while after Romnic Digby's disappearance - he had never turned up again, and for nearly a month after, Davie had been terribly sad. Sometimes, she was too sullen to eat, or leave the common room on Hogsmeade weekends, asking to be left alone.

Sirius did get somewhat envious on occasion, but he was compelled to at least be somewhat understanding of the fact that Davie was simply mourning the loss of a friend. By now, however, as long as the topic never came up in any concrete terms, she seemed to be getting along fine.

Sirius pulled his wand from his pocket and conjured up a blanket, laying it out and tugging Davie to sit and lean back against him. It was clear that the summer holidays were drawing near, as the sun was high in the cloudless sky, and since there was no wind, it was terribly warm and balmy out. Sirius had loosened the tie of his uniform, and Davie had tied her hair somewhat messily into ponytail, hanging loosely to the side. The air smelled of freshly cut grass, and from somewhere in the distance, some sort of cake that Hagrid was baking off in his hut. It was so calm. So _deceptively_ calm.

"Sirius," Davie said, staring up at the sky and resting her head back against his shoulder. "Don't you think it's sort of sad?"

"Sad?" Sirius chuckled, wrapping his arms around Davie and resting his chin on her shoulder so that his face was next to hers. "What, the weather? If you think the sun is depressing, I think you've been hanging around Slytherins too long --"

"Not the weather!" Davie groaned, elbowing Sirius gently. "I mean -- this time next year, we won't _be_ here anymore. We'll be -- we don't _know _where we'll be."

"No more school, no more _detentions_, no more of Slughorn's essays," Sirius said, leaning his back with a mirthful laugh. "We'll be free! It's divine, isn't it?"

"But we have it so good here," Davie said, her voice melancholy and a bit softer than usual. Sirius chuckled dismissively, which caused Davie to prop herself up on her own arms and turn her head to face him. "I'm just going to _miss_ this -- the way we all have always sat around in the grass, doing nothing, I mean."

"The grass?" Sirius laughed, as though Davie's train of thought were something impossible to follow. "Well, I'm sure Dumbledore will let you come back and sit on the grass anytime you like -- we're going to be seeing more of him and everyone else anyway, remember?" Sirius was, of course, referring to the Order. They hadn't yet been called to another meeting, but the Daily Prophet had been peppered with various stories about Death Eater attacks throughout the country. The attacks were spreading with equal frequency between magical and wizarding towns. The way things seemed to be turning out -- word of mouth was even that Sirius' younger brother, Regulus, had joined up with them -- the Order of the Phoenix would have their work cut out for them. Davie, however, was not to be distracted from the issue at hand.

"Oh, come on," Sirius said, shaking her gently -- though he'd never say it in so many words, it worried him a bit when Davie got this way, all sad and thoughtful as though every day, she expected something else to go wrong. He couldn't blame her, with the way things had been for her and losing her parents, but he wondered if there was a point where a line ought to have been drawn. "It's not as if we're all going to get split up and become wrinkly old bats, living alone. Alone, with fifty cats."

"You never know," Davie said with a weak laugh, though it wasn't completely a joke.

"No cats. Cats and dogs don't mix, and," Sirius began, tugging Davie back slightly so that she was leaning against him again, "_this_ dog will not stand for it."

"Well," Davie said distantly, only half-laughing in response. "Strange things happen when people grow up. I think growing up is -- I think it's a little bit like dying. It means not being able to be the same person anymore."

"Don't be such a downer, Davie," Sirius said, reaching around and touching her face gently. "Growing up isn't like dying -- what if we live to be a hundred? We're nowhere near dying! We take care of all the Order business and get on --"

"Trying to get away from us, are you?" came James voice in the distance. Sirius and Davie looked up to see the others hurrying over, arms laden with snacks and bottles of butterbeer and pumpkin juice, with Peter jogging along in the rear as usual.

"Good thing you set up a big blanket, we've brought the whole clan," Remus grinned as they all settled down together on the blanket -- in the heat, the boys had all loosened their ties, and Lily and Davie had shed their outer robes altogether in favor of their uniforms underneath. Lily, it turned out, had brought along a camera that James had purchased for her during their last Hogsmeade trip, brandishing it at the group. Davie gave a yip of delight.

"Oh, put the camera on that rock over there, we need a photo!" Davie said excitedly. "All these years and we've never gotten a photo of all of us together. None where Sirius isn't putting a pair of horns behind James' head."

Peter quickly obliged, setting the camera onto a nearby rock and rushing back over as they all tried to arrange themselves into a decently posed photo.

"Sirius, put the Mallowpuff down, the photo --"

The camera flashed with Davie still chiding Sirius, who in turn had a mouth full of jelly-filled marshmallows, reaching for a bottle of pumpkin juice. Lily raised her wand to set the camera again while Davie gave Sirius a hard pinch on the arm, and when it flashed, she flashed him a grin.

"That's better," she laughed mirthfully. "Now we need one of Lily and James --"

James swooped Lily into a tight hug, placing an exaggerated kiss on her cheek for the camera.

"Davie! Sirius! It's your turn!"

Sirius, feeling compelled to get one up on James, swept Davie off of her feet and dipped her -- this, however, resulted in Davie screaming and clinging onto him for dear life.

"We don't have any of just the boys --"

Davie wriggled her way out of Sirius' arms and shoved him towards the other boys for a photo while Lily held the camera; James had to grab a laughing but still somewhat bashful Remus Lupin in order to get him into the photo.

"Come on, now, Moony," James guffawed. "The Marauders are a package deal -- all for one and one for all, eh?"

"No more photos!" Sirius laughed, placing his hand over the lens of Lily's camera, right after she had snapped a photo of the four boys. "Or else."

"Or else what?" Davie asked with an impish smirk. She should have known that she'd done something quite dangerous indeed when Sirius mirrored the expression, then winked at James - Davie, it would turn out, had just challenged the boys to do their worst. Immediately, the two boys rushed over to their girlfriends, sweeping them up and jumping without hesitation into the Great Lake.

"Sirius, lemme _out_!" Davie cried shrilly, laughing and splashing violently. "If you don't put me back on dry land, I swear, you'll have tree branches growing out of your nostrils -- _where's_ my wand?!"

"The merpeople -- and the _squid_!" Lily said shrilly, pushing some of her sopping wet auburn hair out of her face. "We're not supposed to --"

"Oh, come on, we were just cooling off, Lils," James chuckled; he and Sirius picked the girls back up and brought them back up to the picnic blanket to an amused-looking Remus and Peter. Davie scrambled onto the blanket, rummaging around for her wand in order to dry herself, when she looked up and saw Professor Dumbledore striding over. Straightening up even though she was still sopping wet, she faced their Headmaster, unsure of whether or not they would be in trouble for jumping into the lake.

"You may relax, Miss Maddux," the old man chuckled, reaching out and patting her shoulder. "I simply came to deliver good news. Here we are," he said brightly, pulling a piece of parchment from the pocket of his robes and holding it out to Davie, who grabbed her robes from the ground and wiped her wet hands anxiously before accepting the proffered letter.

"_Dear Miss Maddux,_" she read aloud hesitantly -- even the mere salutation sent a slight prickle over her skin. "The Ministry for Magic of the Republic of Bulgaria has maintained correspondence with the Headmaster of your institution of attendance, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Pending the results of your NEWT exams which will be sent to our offices via Owl Post, we are pleased to extend an invitation to our Auror Training Program which will take place over the summer and early autumn of 1978. Completion of said program will be sufficient qualification to work as an Auror in your location of choice."

"Congratulations, my dear girl," Dumbledore said, his eyes twinkling pleasantly - Davie, however, felt less excited and more anxious upon receiving the letter than she had expected. "You and, I believe, Miss Dorsey have received letters from the Ministry in Bulgaria extending an invitation. It will be of great help to -- certain affairs with which you may be interested," he said with an approving nod, and it was true. Trained Aurors in the Ministry would be of great use to the Order. "You all must be proud of your friend," Dumbledore said with a knowing grin, looking up at the others, who were all unsurprisingly staring at Sirius, awaiting a reaction.

Davie finally breathed easily when he wrapped his arms around her from behind, planting a kiss on her cheek. "_Terribly _proud," he said, holding her tightly. Davie gave his hand a squeeze, beaming brightly upon finally hearing his approval. "_Terribly proud_."

***

_A/N's _

_Sorry to keep you all waiting, just for a chapter full of fluff - I'm just working up to getting into the gang's post-school lives, and I really want to get it just right! Hopefully you guys won't be too upset with me just for placing a few more days than usual in between updates._

_Thanks to __**Azulish**__, to __**lovestooreadALOT, **__to __**Silver Huntress2**__, to __**Friar Freaking Lawrence**__, and to __**ashes-of-lily **__for subscribing to the story!_

_The next chapter will be our last chapter at Hogwarts, but nowhere close to being the last chapter of the story. As you all know, the plot thickens from here for the poor dears. Stay tuned! Cheers!_


	20. Chapter 20

**Chapter Twenty**

Davie was sitting in her dormitory room, on her bed, for what was probably the last time she would ever see it. Mary Macdonald and Lily had already gone downstairs, but Davie sat and stared a short while longer.

It was the night of the graduation celebration for the seventh year students, which consisted of a ceremony by the lake, followed by a short carriage ride down to a banquet in Hogsmeade. The trunks in the dormitory were all packed and lined up at the foot of their respective owners' beds, and would be brought by the House Elves downstairs so that the students were not forced to take care of them the next day - the seventh years were given the option of staying at the school and taking the train, or, since there were going to be off of school grounds for the evening, apparating home. Davie would be returning to her family's home this summer while she waited for her NEWT results, the first time she would be spending time in the house alone. Lily had already asked her parents if she could stay with her friend this time around, and Mr. and Mrs. Evans graciously agreed.

Davie sat and stared at herself in the mirror for a bit -- she knew that Sirius would give her a hard time for being so sentimental, and so, she decided to let it all out beforehand. Davie was surprised how different she looked when she first arrived at the school -- she didn't look nearly as bug-like anymore, she'd learned how to wear her hair, she looked…more tired.

So much had happened over the course of seven years at Hogwarts, and the thought that they were still young and that more was bound to happen yet was something that Davie thought about more than most, after having lost so many people she had cared about.

***

"She's always late. Always the last one out," Sirius grumbled, staring up the staircase to the girls' dorms from his seat on the common room couches. "Always --"

"Sorry!" came Davie's voice from upstairs -- and seeing her, Sirius found his anger dissolving yet again. The years at Hogwarts had been transformative for all of them, but Sirius had never really thought of how much Davie had changed until now, when it hit him right in the face. She had left her hair down in waves that were nearly to her waist now; she was clad in a dark purple garment which draped gracefully over her shoulders, but most notable to Sirius was the fact that instead of brushing the floor loosely the way she had always opted for in previous years, the skirt of her dress stopped short of her knees, hugging her hips.

Davina Maddux was most definitely no longer a child.

"That bad?" she asked with a small laugh, tucking her hair behind her ear as she nearly pranced down the staircase.

"Yes. Terrible. Maybe you should just take it off, right now," Sirius said with a husky laugh, placing his hand on his girlfriend's waist and ducking as she took a wide, playful swing at his head for his comment - _that, _Sirius was relieved to tell himself,was clearly the same Davie he had always known.

The pair were surprisingly quiet when they were walking down the stairs toward the Entrance Hall - there were no staring eyes tonight. Everyone seemed to have retired to bed _except_ for the Seventh Years. In fact, they seemed to be the ones doing most of the staring, occasionally pointing out a spot along the way that held some sort of memory -- the spot where Davie had hit Sirius in the nose with a hex, the spot where they'd argued after Davie set off a firecracker in Sirius' rear pocket -- so many of the memories, they noted with mirthful laughter, had involved them fully believing that they unequivocally loathed one another.

They reached the chairs set up outdoors where the students were seated in alphabetical order; Davie's heart sank slightly at the sight of an empty seat two seats away from Sirius and right next to Lily, left unoccupied in memory of Romnic Digby, whom they all assumed to be dead with how long it had been since he had gone missing.

"Finally out of here, then," Mary Macdonald said happily, taking her assigned seat next to Davie. "Going to be nice, isn't it?"

Davie was thoroughly enjoying the ceremony -- it was unlike anything that she had ever seen, with candles floating everywhere, and Professor Dumbledore's voice magically magnified everywhere. Each student was given a pin signifying their best class by its respective professor, and when Davie was called up for to receive a pin for Defense Against the Dark Arts, she gave her friends an elated wave. Remus, James, and Sirius had excelled in Transfiguration, Lily in Potions, and Peter in Charms - though calling anything Peter's best subject was not saying much.

Once everyone had settled back into their seats, Dumbledore's voice rang out yet again.

"I do not think any of you would disagree," he boomed warmly, "that none of us would be precisely where we stand today if not for our families. And so, I have a very special surprise."

Dumbledore clapped his hands together, then raised his hands towards a spot somewhere behind all of the students. They turned around and gasped a bit to see a sea of people holding candles, filing up the center aisle towards Dumbledore's podium to fetch medals that were hanging from thin air.

"_Mum_!" Lily said excitedly, spotting Mrs. Evans in the crowds - Dumbledore had invited members from everyone's families to the ceremony to participate. When Dumbledore requested all of the students to line up at the front of the setup the way they had lined up in the Great Hall for their Sorting Ceremony over seven years ago, Davie's heart sank. She didn't even need to scan the crowd to know that there was no one at the ceremony for her - she would be standing there alone, in front of everyone. Everyone would be staring at her again, just as she thought she'd escaped it.

All of the parents walked up and placed a medal with the Hogwarts crest around their children's necks. Both of Lily's parents attended, placing a proud kiss on their daughter's forehead. Remus' parents gave his sandy hair a ruffle, gazing at him with pride. The Potters embraced their son fondly -- their only son, their pride and joy no matter how much trouble he managed to get himself into. Peter's parents, an older couple as rotund and red-faced as their son, were present to beam at their son with extreme joy. Even Snape's mother, a thin, sickly, tired-looking woman, was there to place a medal on him with an awkward, reserved sort of affection.

The only one other than Davie, it appeared, who had no one present for them was Sirius Black, who was trying quite hard to look unaffected by the fact that his mother had made no effort to even come tonight, even though Dumbledore had no doubt sent her an owl about it. She would have no doubt, Sirius mused, come for Regulus.

Steeling her resolve, Davie walked over to the podium where the medals were, plucked one from the air, then walked over to Sirius, giving him a watery smile.

"You'll have to settle for me, then," she said, standing on her tiptoes and placing the Hogwarts medal around his neck. His expression was unreadable for a moment - he stared at her as though he didn't recognize her, but in that moment, with a lopsided smile, he realized that he completely and unequivocally loved this girl. He reached over for one of the medals and placed it around Davie's neck as well, wrapping his arms around her tightly -- Davie didn't expect him to say anything, of course. Such sentiment would be very un-Sirius indeed. It was more of an unspoken pact that each was all that the other had. Dumbledore had his gaze locked on them even more than the other students with a twinkle in his crystal-blue eyes.

"I have seen with my own eyes," Dumbledore began, calling everyone's attention back to him, "that all of you first came to this school so much younger and so much more moldable. All you entered this school, not knowing what you would become."

"I am filled with nothing for pride in all of you, whatever you have chosen," Dumbledore said gently, his gaze resting especially on certain students, including Severus Snape. "You will not be judged, or ridiculed if ever you wish to return here. You are still safe here, and welcome here, should you ever seek refuge. Should you find your path is more cruel than you expected, you may rest assured that you will find safety here, as you always have."

"I see many of you are shedding tears tonight, and understandably so - this is both the end and the beginning of a very important journey. For seven years, you have all walked along one wide road together. Now, that wide road breaks off into dozens of forking paths, the strands of which approach one another, bifurcate, intersect or ignore each other through the centuries--embrace every possibility. (1) And that is precisely what you must venture forth believing - your paths will cross if they are meant to cross. They will divide if they are meant to divide. It is not our place to say which will happen, only to do what is right, and wish one another well all the same."

"But you've heard enough from me, I'm sure," Dumbledore said with a chuckle. "You're anxious to enjoy another night with one another -- and so at the end of this commencement ceremony, I invite your new lives to -- _commence_."

Immediately, Davie rushed over and pulled her best friend away from Sirius, hugging her tightly - Mr. and Mrs. Evans held something out to her as well, wrapped in light blue paper. She thanked them warmly and accepted the present, unwrapping the package to find a small leatherbound book - it was a book of Muggle poetry that Davie had been enthralled with during her visit to the Evans' home the previous summer.

"Oh, I -- _thank you_," she repeated, hugging her best friend's mother and father happily. " It's wonderful!"

She opened the book to the first page she came across, and glanced at the words on the page, smiling as she started reading them in a quiet voice to herself. "The glory and the freshness of a dream -- it is not now as it hath been of yore --"(2)

"Mum, Dad, I want you to meet someone!" Lily said, grabbing James by the arm and yanking him over when he passed -- Davie looked up from her book and closed it over her finger to mark the page. "This is -- well, I've told you about my boyfriend, James," she explained carefully. "James, this is my mum and dad,"

"_Ah_," Mr. Evans said, reaching his hand out and firmly shaking James' politely outstretched hand. "Our Lily's told us about you. A bit of a troublemaker, I've heard --"

"Dad, he's _Head Boy_," Lily said, placing over her hand over her father's, which was still clasped in a vice on James' hand; James Potter looked elated beyond belief, however, that Lily Evans was actually standing up for him. For _him_! "And his marks are outstanding and --"

"I've been keeping an eye on them, Mr. Evans!" Davie piped up, for which Lily gave a grateful smile. "He's been on his best behavior, I promise."

And then, he smiled.

"A bit like me when I was young, then," he said with a chuckle, glancing over his shoulder at Mrs. Evans, who was demurely watching the entire scene in good humor. "Alright, you lot -- have a good time. Lily will be by to see you soon, yes?" he said, clapping Davie fondly on the shoulder.

As the teenagers all came together and started heading towards the carriages, Sirius slung his arm affectionately over Davie's shoulder and did not remove it the entire way down to Hogsmeade village - they could hear the music playing for their reception from quite a few meters away.

However, when they had sat down at the tables in the cleared high street of the village, Davie seemed surprisingly quiet, glancing around with a sort of melancholy expression on her face. When Sirius saw her gaze wander towards a table where some of the Slytherins were gathered, he gave a slight huff, placing a hand on her arm.

"You're sad because Digby couldn't be here," Sirius said in an unusually calm voice, but Davie still looked up at him with guilt in her eyes nonetheless. Sirius chuckled, shaking his head. "S'alright," he said, giving her arm a squeeze.

"You know, if he hadn't ended up in Slytherin, you may have been friends," Davie said with a short laugh before falling silent again. Noting that she wasn't really enjoying herself the way Sirius was accustomed to, he grabbed her hand, tugging for her to stand up.

"Let's dance," he suggested, nodding towards everyone else, and with a smile, Davie obliged. Before long, she felt much better -- possibly because the sight of Sirius dancing was comical enough to dispel any sort of worry she had.

"I never got to tell my dad he was right," Davie laughed as Sirius gave her a clumsy sort of spin under his arm. "I hated you when we were kids -- and I told him _everything_! I told him how much you irritated me, and you know what he said?"

"Hex that boy right between the eyes," Sirius suggested as he wrapped his hands back around Davie's waist. "Let him feel the wrath of those skinny little knees of yours, _right_ where it hurts --"

"_No_!" Davie laughed, giving him a light, playful shove. "He told me, 'Davie, that boy fancies you!' and I laughed for nearly a week straight -- but look at us now --"

Davie froze at the sight of a sudden shift in Sirius' expression, looking at a spot behind Davie's head; she turned around and froze in surprise at the sight of Severus Snape, looking almost sick to his stomach at having to approach then, with good reason. There had never been a direct confrontations following the incident in the woods, but the hatred and tension any time there were in so much as the same corridor bubbled over quite tangibly.

"May I have a moment?" he grumbled.

"Not this again. Listen, _Sniv--_" Sirius began, but he was hushed by Davie's grip on his arm. Briefly scrutinizing the expression on her face, he cleared his throat. "Alright. _A_ moment. Singular," he said, almost snarling at Snape before walking away. Once he was out of earshot, Davie turned to Snape with her arms crossed.

"What's this about?" she asked gently, trying to avoid any sort of scandal. "We both know we're not friends." Severus, however, looked at though he couldn't even justify coming over to speak with her in the first place.

"Give this to Lily," he said after a short while of hesitation, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a piece of parchment that was folded a few times, creased so heavily that Davie was surprised it hadn't torn. "Anytime over the summer - I don't care if I never receive any response. Make sure she reads it."

"Done," Davie said disimissively, plucking the note from his hand, her gaze remaining rigid. "Now that I have leverage, tell me -- are you the one who killed Romnic?"

"Me? Kill Digby?" Snape said, visibly snarling at Davie. "You're barking --"

"_Are_ you?"

"No."

"Alright then," Davie said, stepping away from him quickly and nodding. "Goodbye, Severus."

Meanwhile, about a meter away, Sirius stood with Lily and James -- they hadn't seen Davie take the note from Severus, they didn't know what she had tucked away into the pages of the book she had received from Lily's parents.

"Oh," Lily said, looking quite perturbed at the sight of Davie with her former friend. "James, d'you think --"

"I _think_," James began, gripping Lily's forearm in assurance, "that Davie know what she's doing. She's alright."

"I don't trust him around her," Lily continued, shaking her head. Sirius was standing with his arms crossed, and he grunted in agreement. "He's very good at _pretending_ to be trustworthy --"

"_Davie_!" James called out, holding up his hand in greeting as Davie approached. The petite girl ducked around Sirius and immediately hugged him around the waist; Sirius reflexively placed his arm around her shoulder, this time gripping her a bit tighter than usual as though to keep her from scurrying away. "We've been talking, and we want to be there when you get the results of your NEWTs -- all of us."

At this, Davie's face burst into a broad grin - she was absolutely elated at the idea of having company, of not having to be alone in her family's old home. She looked up at Sirius for confirmation.

"So, what do you say?" he laughed, beaming and resting his forehead against hers. "D'you mind if we invite ourselves into your home sometime this summer?"

"No! Of course I don't mind!" Davie squealed, letting go of Sirius with one arm and reaching out to hug Lily and James as well. "It's -- it's probably a complete mess since I've last been there --"

"D'you think we mind?" Remus asked with a chuckle, coming up from behind Sirius. "Better than the Shrieking Shack, that's for sure."

Davie continued smiling, though she had to dab at a tear in her eyes -- it was not so much the prospect of graduating that was making her cry, but the prospect of starting this new life with friends who saw her as _herself_, just herself -- and _just-Davie_ was something that even Davie herself was not completely familiar with yet.

The Marauders, they were sure, were one group of friends that would never be split up. This was one friendship, they decided, was not going to change.

***

_A/N's_

_(1) from "Garden of the Forking Paths" by Jorge Luis Borges - this is an AMAZING short story I read in a World Literature course last semester. _

_(2) from the poem "Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood"; Note the title! This poem (which I first heard in the movie "Splendor in the Grass" with Natalie Wood and Warren Beatty) is one of my sources of inspiration for this story. The poem will come up again later!_

_So back to the story, it's goodbye Hogwarts! The Hogwarts years were so fun to write because there's so much basis, and the structure for how things happen is so more clear - after Hogwarts, everything gets a bit more hazy, but that's where we're headed next!_

_Thank you to **amrawo**__, __**Azulish**__, and **d**__**ancingqueensillystring** __for your feedback! I'll keep this one brief and hopefully update soon! I'm working on proofreading my chapters, but it's been a bit slower lately with school and everything. I'm just so glad so many of you have stuck with me this far! I appreciate it a lot! _

_Next update, you'll have a whole lot more reading to do! I would expect it to be up on Friday perhaps, or Saturday at the latest! Until then, cheers!_


	21. Chapter 21

**Chapter Twenty-One**

_December the Twenty-Fifth, Nineteen Seventy-Eight_

It had been the height of July when Davie received the owl with her exams results -- James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter had all joined Lily and Davie in the Maddux family home about a week prior, and they had all gathered around as Davie broke the seal and received the news that she had achieved sufficient marks to go to Bulgaria -- when she departed in August, they had seen her off warmly. Most of the members of the Order had come to the Maddux home to say farewell, and Davie had consequently been forced at least a dozen times over to promise she would come home in one piece, that she would write whenever she had time, and, especially by Molly Weasley, to eat well while she was away.

When Lily had received the owl from Davie that she was going to be returning to her own home on Christmas Day, that she was completely safe, and that she wasn't sure when she would be able to go see everyone, Lily immediately got to writing James; the pair quickly spread the word to everyone.

It was now Christmas Day and it seemed that everyone _except _for Davie was in Davie's home -- including most of the Order, yet again. Lily's plan had been to have a small surprise Christmas-slash-welcome-home party, but it had quickly turned into a far bigger event than she'd even planned. The last of the guests to arrive was Sirius Black -- over the course of the past autumn, he had grown his hair a bit longer, taken to riding a Muggle motorcycle, but was very much the same reckless boy he had always been. He had brought as guests, however, his cousin -- the only cousin with whom he was on good terms -- Andromeda and her five-year-old daughter, Nymphadora Tonks.

"I've told her all about Davie and she brought a -- what'd you call that thing again?" Sirius asked, nodding nonchalantly towards the tray in his cousin's hands.

"A pineapple upside-down cake, Sirius," she laughed, placing the dessert on the table with the rest of the food. "Sirius won't stop talking and writing about the girl. Talks about her incessantly as well, I feel like I already know her --"

"I don't talk about her that much --"

"_Bollocks_!" Dromeda laughed, giving her cousin a playful push -- her demeanor, it would turn out, was very much like Davie's. Though Sirius very rarely vocalized how much he had missed his girlfriend, the fact that he had taken this opportunity to grow so close to his cousin was proof enough. "I think even Dora has the girl's favorite ice cream flavour memorized by now. But anyway, she sounds like a lovely girl, I couldn't miss the opportunity to -- _DORA!_"

Everyone looked over as the tiny girl's hair turned a very funny shade of green, and her eyes turned rather large and beady; Sirius remarked that she looked a bit like a very pale and hairy frog. She laughed, wrinkling her nose and shaking her head fervently until it returned to normal.

"My _niece_," Sirius said proudly, scooping the girl up and lifting her onto his shoulders, "is a Metamorphmagus. New hair color every few minutes! Trumps Uncle Sirius by a mile, doesn't it?"

"You look nervous, Padfoot," James laughed, slugging his friend's shoulder once he had put Dora down. "Worried Davie won't like your motorbike?"

"Oy! My _bike_," Sirius said, jabbing a finger towards his friend's face, "is _irresistible_ to women and you know it --"

"Hush, you two," Lily said, waving her hand fervently. "Davie's going to be here any minute and she'll be able to hear you from a mile away -- the _lights_," Lily said authoritatively. "Come on, come on!"

Everyone shuffled off to the sides of the room, and Lily extinguished all of the lights with her wand, waving for everyone to be quiet; James smirked and pulled out his Invisibility Cloak, tossing it over Sirius -- the room fell silent while the hand of the clock hit six o'clock. James clapped a hand over Sirius' mouth to keep him quiet when the fireplace crackled to life on its own, and a figure stumbled out.

"Ugh, ride's a bit rougher than I remember," Davie muttered to herself in the dark, dusting soot off of her arms and face before pulling out her wand and flicking her wrist toward the chandelier.

"_SURPRISE!_"

Davie jumped and nearly dropped her wand when she saw everyone in the room -- they were all here for _her_. The smile on her face was incomparable, she didn't even see Lily coming as she approached from the side, nearly tackling her friend in a hug.

"Look at you!" Lily laughed, batting at a tendril of Davie's hair, which was now tied back in a ponytail and longer than she'd ever seen it; it was a bit lighter, no doubt from having been in the sun, the rain, and whatever elements one faced in Bulgaria for so long. "I have so much to tell you -- did you know Petunia has a boyfriend now? I've only just met him at Christmas dinner, here! I have a photograph!"

Lily pulled a photo from the pocket of her sweater -- it was obviously a Muggle photo, because it wasn't moving, and she held it out to Davie, who looked at it with scrutiny, trying not to laugh. "His name's Vernon. Vernon Dursley --"

"Sounds like a sort of vegetable," Davie pointed out with a tiny, snide smile. "And looks like a sort of livestock. So - farm boy, all around?" Davie laughed casually -- but when Lily pulled out a leather notebook into which she tucked the photograph, Davie suddenly, briefly remembered that she had been given something she had promised to give to Lily. She had forgotten all summer --

Just then, James strode over, clapping a hand on Davie's arm, giving it a playful pinch.

"Is that a muscle, _Davina_," he laughed, earning a playful sock in the shoulder which he found was much stronger than the punches she used to give in school. "_Look _at you," he laughed, giving the girl a one-armed hug. Remus was rushing over to greet her as well, and Peter was -- well, being Peter, he was standing at the food table picking at things in a very rat-like manner. Professor Dumbledore walked over, bringing Alastor Moody with him -- Mad-Eye had worked a bit with Davie in Bulgaria, but didn't spend much time in the country, citing that it drove his magical eye completely barmy, as it was 'teeming with Dark Magic'. He did, however, seem impressed with Davie's performance from his limited exposure, and regardless of the fact that he seemed rather out-of-place at such a gathering, he had briefly made an appearance nonetheless.

"Alastor tells me wonderful things about you -- never would have expected!" Dumbledore said warmly, placing a hand on Davie's shoulder. He quickly noted her eyes scanning the room and smiled knowingly, sparing a wink towards James.

"_Uh oh_!"

Davie turned around and saw an unfamiliar little girl who seemed to have spilled something on herself -- her hair, it turned out, was bright candy floss pink. The girl looked at Davie for a moment, then at another unfamiliar woman, and point at Davie.

"_Mummy_, is she the _Roarer --_"

"_Auror_, dearie," Dromeda said, walking over with a napkin and wiping at her daughter's jumper, clucking her tongue disapprovingly before holding her hand out towards Davie, who was smiling but also looking duly confused as to who this was. "Andromeda Tonks, and this is my daughter, Nymphadora -- you must be Davie, I've heard all about you, _wonderful_ to meet you!"

"Oh," Davie said with a slightly nervous laugh, reaching out and shaking the woman's hand. "Are you -- you must be -- ah --"

"Sirius is my cousin --"

"And you're Uncle Siri's girlfriend! " Dora giggled knowingly, walking over and tugging on Davie's arm insistently. "Are you really a _Roarer_ --"

"_Auror, _Dora --"

"-- and you hunt for Dark Wizards?"

"Right I do," Davie laughed, putting down her traveling bag on the ground and sitting cross-legged in front of the little girl, with whom she felt immediately affectionate towards. "That's some _lovely_ hair you've got there --"

"Yeah!" Dora replied brightly. "I like it this way -- but I like it blue as well."

Davie's eyes widened as, just as promised, the little girl's hair changed color right in front of her eyes; she looked up at Andromeda who simply laughed, giving her daughter a light bit of applause at the show.

"She enjoys showing off -- loves attention from anyone who'll give it," she explained, kneeling down next to her daughter. "Just loves --"

"I'm not showing off! I only wanted to show Auntie Davie --"

Davie gave a shocked grin at the moniker -- _Auntie_ Davie! Little Nymphadora had completely won Davie over now, and at being referred to as an auntie, one thing returned to Davie's mind as well…

"Do you know if your Uncle Siri's coming?" Davie asked gently, still looking around the room nervously. Why _wasn't_ he here? Had he changed his mind over the course of a few months? Davie's head seemed filled with the unpleasant buzz of possibilities why Sirius would not even want to come. "Or is he busy? I'm sure he --"

But before she could finish her statement, Davie yelped as an unseen pair of arms scooped her up around the waist -- the cloak fell off to reveal Sirius Black -- long hair and all, slinging his girlfriend playfully over his shoulder.

"_Look_ at you!" he laughed, giving Davie a spin in the air -- no matter how different she looked, she was still as light and easy to pick up and carry around as she'd been months ago, before she left. "I see you've met Dromeda and Dora --"

"They're _darling_," Davie laughed breathlessly as Sirius placed her down on the ground again, a few feet from where he had picked her up. "And you were hiding from me, you prat!" she said, slapping his shoulder in mock-anger before she wrapped her arms around him, kissing him soundly, to which the other guests responded with applause and laughter. The sight of Lily and James planning the entire soiree together and now Sirius and Davie being reunited was one of the lighthearted events that many of them had not seen in a good while - it was a happy sight, and a hopeful one.

Most of the guests noted that Davie had come into herself quite a bit in the months of her absence -- she was still the same awkward, loud, slightly raucous girl she had always been, and she still found herself hovering around Lily and Sirius for a sense of security, but now she was able to move with a sort of ease she hadn't possessed since before her parents' death.

It was, however, still Christmas Day, and eventually, most everyone present had to return to their families -- soon, after a short round of goodbyes, only Lily, James, Sirius, and Davie remained in the Maddux house. Though Lily was reluctant to agree, James had pulled out a bottle of firewhiskey to accompany their mulled mead that evening.

"Only a _bit, _James, or you'll be splinched heading home for sure --"

"Oh, come on -- we can kip on Davie's sofa, worst case scenario," James laughed. "Besides, we're only young once --"

"Yeah, and I'd like to live to be _old_ once too," Lily laughed, giving James a playful shove. He opened a bottle of Ogden's Old Firewhiskey and took a swig, passing it to Sirius, who in turn passed it to the girls. Lily and Davie both made comical gagging faces at the sensation of the liquid in their throats, a feeling with which they were obviously rather unfamiliar.

***

"And then --_ BOOM_!" Davie giggled loudly, making an exaggerated flying motion with her hand and nearly falling down against Sirius. The teenagers were sitting on the floor, the bottle of firewhiskey laying almost empty on its side. "Fell right off his broom --"

"Oy," James interrupted, laughing and rubbing his eyes, glancing at the clock. "I ought to bring Lily back home -- _look_ at her," he laughed, pointing a wobbling hand towards the sofa, where Lily had fallen asleep. James raised an eyebrow at Sirius giving him a pointed glance. "You coming along?"

"Nah," Sirius drawled, his forehead wrinkling as he shook his head. "I think -- think I'll --"

"_Padfoot,_" James chided, obviously the one out of the four of them with the best stomach for the firewhiskey. He was, in any case, lucid enough to have some misgivings about leaving a pair of inebriated, very much in-love teenagers alone in a house together after having been separated for a third of a year. "Lily will _kill_ me if you do anything stupid and she knows I let you --"

"My best behavior, on my honor," Sirius chuckled, giving James a limp, clumsy salute. "Bring the lady home -- I can't very well leave _mine_ here like that --"

As though to prove his point, Davie had reached for her cup of mulled mead on the table, but had missed and instead hit a vase of flowers which, though it did not break, spilled its contents on the table and rolled onto the floor with a clatter. She reached to turn it right-side up again, and nearly tumbled over before just barely bracing herself against the edge of the sofa.

"Look at her. She'll break her skull at this rate," Sirius muttered to James, nodding at Davie. James still hesitated, but prioritized bringing Lily home more than anything. He conceded, scooping his girlfriend up and heading out the door, reminding his best friend not to try anything funny.

Sirius shut the front door behind James and Lily, and turned around to see a still very inebriated Davie standing precariously on the edge of couch, arms outstretched, her face looking intensely focused.

"_Davie_," Sirius drawled, stumbling over and attempting to tug her down from the sofa. "Alright, you're _really_ out of it, time to --"

"Moody said I had great balance -- _impeccable_ balance! Just look'it!" she rambled, waving away his concern with a loud, dismissive drawl. "And no bloody firewhiskey is going to change -- _ouch!_"

Davie gave a loud yelp as, while she was taking a step, one foot crossed awkwardly over the other and she was sent practically tumbling off of the couch, knocking Sirius over in the process and landing both of them on the soft, shaggy hearth rug.

"Sorry," Davie said, squinting slightly in the gentle glowing coming from the fireplace - she had landed awkwardly on top of Sirius. "I'll just --" Davie braced herself on the ground and intending to push herself off of him when she realized that he had gently grabbed a hold of her forearms, keeping her from moving.

Perhaps it was the fact that they'd both had a bit more firewhiskey than they'd intended, or perhaps it was because she looked terribly pretty in the amber-orange tinge of the firelight. Perhaps it was because Sirius was overwhelmed by the familiar scent of clean linens and cinnamon sugar permeating the air with the way her hair draped over them. Perhaps it was the fact that he had spent the better part of the past four months refraining from vocalizing how much he'd missed her. Whatever the case, Sirius suddenly found the promise he had made to James to remain on his best behavior not quite as binding as it had been when he had made it.

Sirius pulled her down, kissing her hungrily - he wrapped his arms around her back, pulling her close against him. The pressure of her weight bearing down on his chest was more than welcome and familiar -- but even Sirius was caught by surprise when Davie's lips parted from his and moved down to his neck, her fingers clumsily undoing the buttons of his shirt.

"_Davie_--"

He groaned slightly, stopping her with extreme reluctance -- despite the _very_ evident fact that he wanted this badly, he'd _sworn _to his best friend that he wouldn't do this. He stood up, looking down at himself -- his shirt was completely undone. At this point, had this been anyone other girl at any other time, he wouldn't have stopped. Davie knew full well that he'd been around a bit when they'd been in school, and though Sirius very rarely expressed many sentimental sorts of intimations towards her, he had made it explicitly clear that he wanted the circumstances under which this happened between him and Davie to be _very_ different.

"You don't want to?" Davie asked, a lilt of vulnerability evident in her voice even when it was still a bit slurred. Sirius had every intention of saying he didn't. But she looked so sad, so dejected -- James would forgive him. He _had_ to forgive him.

"Oh, _hell_." Sirius said in a throaty voice, pulling Davie back to him and resuming the kiss. Davie's hands grazed over his chest, pushing his shirt off of his shoulders and letting it fall to the floor. Sirius hooked this thumbs under the hem of her shirt, pulling it cleanly up over her head and tossing it to the side. Wrapping his arms around her again, he picked her up -- she was so petite that her feet no longer even touched the floor and she wrapped her legs around his waist.

Sirius was completely sure he couldn't stop now, even if he wanted to. _Neither_ of them wanted to. In what felt like only a few heated moments, Sirius had placed Davie down on the nearest sofa, kissing her neck. He placed his hands on her hips and pulled back momentarily to look at her. Her lips were crimson from kissing so fiercely, her faced flushed down to her collarbones, her breathing ragged.

"_Sirius --"_

"PADFOOT!"

Sirius and Davie both jumped, turning to face the fireplace as suddenly, the voice of James Potter came so loudly that it nearly echoed in the room; his face soon appeared in the embers, and he seemed taken aback by the fact that Sirius and Davie were in a rather incriminating state of undress.

"Oy, Prongs --"

"I'm not even going to ask. This is important, Padfoot," James interrupted urgently. "Dumbledore's calling for the Order, there's been an attack and we need to get there right away."

Davie was completely awestruck -- and feeling quite sober all of a sudden -- while the boys discussed the situation. After James had told Sirius their exact destination, Davie moved around the room scrambling to find her shirt -- having no luck, Sirius tossed her his and grabbed his leather coat that was slung over the back of an armchair.

"Come on, we've got to hurry," Sirius said, grabbing Davie by the arm and pulling her towards the door. "We're taking the bike."

***

_A/N's _

_Phew. That looked like it was about to go all the way, didn't it? The next chapter will be posted tout de suite hopefully one I give it the once over, and it will pick up right where this one leaves off, so stay tuned! I will put off review responses until the next chapter, so until then, cheers!_


	22. Chapter 22

**Chapter Twenty-Two**

"_Come on, we've got to hurry. We're taking the bike_."

Davie had certainly never seen a _flying _motorbike before, but she asked no questions as Sirius conjured a helmet for her and directed her to hop onto the back -- even through the helmet, the wind rushed in her ears as the shot above the clouds. Davie held tightly around his waist, the loose sleeves of his shirt on her small frame flapping in the wind.

They landed hard in a field of almost waist-high grass -- Davie could not tell where they were, but she saw a small town in the distance which seemed to be smouldering. The smoke reached her nose, and seemed to toggle a switch in her. She no longer looked bungling and disoriented, and, grabbing her wand from her back pocket, she looked at Sirius.

"The rest of the Order --"

"Should be here any moment," Sirius affirmed quietly, glancing around in the darkness. Sure enough, in moments a string of loud popping noises signified others arriving via Apparition. Lily, for one, looked quite recovered from earlier and shot Davie a brief, scrutinizing look when she noticed that the girl was wearing a large shirt that looked very much like the one that Sirius had worn to the party.

"Where's Dumbledore?" James asked, crossing his arms and looking around -- there were the Marauders, Lily, Davie, the Weasleys, Fabian and Gideon Prewett, the two McKinnons, Caradoc Dearborne, Benjy Fenwick, Frank and Alice, but McGonagall and Dumbledore were nowhere to be seen. They were seventeen strong in number.

"I don't think Professor Dumbledore can leave the school, even now, we're on our own," Lily pointed out, her forehead wrinkling in concern. "James, we can't wait around much longer --"

"This is the only clear path out of the town that I saw from the air," Davie spoke up, surprising everyone greatly; Davie had never been one to come up with plans, especially not when it came to situations like this. Davie had always been good at following; she followed her friends -- faithfully and courageously, without fail, but _always_ followed. This coming from Davie, however, was something strange for them.

"I say we wait here for them to leave -- two or three stay out of the fray, start helping everyone in town," Davie said, glancing at Alice for support; she and Alice had attended Auror training together and seemed to be on the same train of thought.

"Right. Two or three go in and see what we're dealing with," Alice affirmed. "The rest of us wait here for the Death Eaters, they'll need a clear space to Apparate from. Peter, Molly, Marlene," Alice directed, pointing out the three of them. "Sneak around the perimeter. The rest of us will wait here."

Sirius Black looked at his girlfriend with a strange sort of admiration as the remaining Order members lined up in the tall grass, wands at the ready. For a good while, nothing seemed to be happening. Nothing seemed to be _moving_. Sirius had half the mind to walk over to Davie and ask her about how much she had really changed, when with a loud rushing sound, they all whirled to find a handful of dark-cloaked figures not approaching them head-on, but surrounding them completely. They were outnumbered -- nearly twenty Death Eaters if their count was correct. With the three they sent ahead into the town, there were only fourteen Order members left to face them.

"This is _quaint_," came the familiar voice from under one of the masks. "A bunch of schoolchildren sent to fight the forces of the Dark Lord --"

"This isn't _school_ anymore --_ Avery_." James snarled suddenly, his grip on his wand tightening as he recognized the voice. "No one to take House Points if we happen to rip off any of your _limbs_ --"

"He'll be lucky if it's just a limb," spoke a female voice -- everyone masked their surprise to find that of all the girls among them, the comment had come from Lily.

The onset of the fighting seemed almost instantaneous, quickly exploding into a cloud of light and smoke and hexes -- Sirius could not avoid his main concern from turning into Davie's safety.

A good five or ten minutes into the fighting, she and Alice were standing back to back, surrounded by three Death Eaters. Forgetting the task at hand, Sirius ran over, ready to attack them from behind Davie shot him a glance he knew how to read quite well - in what had to have only been a millisecond, she shared a glance with Alice, and the worry disappeared from their faces. Sirius froze momentarily, unheard by the attackers -- he felt his blood go cold when all three simultaneously yelled, "_STUPEFY!_"

Just as the spells left all of their wands, Davie and Alice disapparated with a loud '_crack_' -- the spells collided in midair, blowing them all backwards with immense force just as both ladies reappeared next to Sirius. Davie left a peck on Sirius' cheek in passing, giving his arm a squeeze.

"Watch your back -- I rather enjoy the view," she smirked before rushing off to help the others. With the odds closer to even, the members of the Order began to slowly gain the upper hand -- the three that Alice and Davie had managed to injure had Disapparated to tend to themselves and their injuries, and slowly others were doing the same.

"I think we've got them!" James called loudly. However, just as he said it, there was a loud crack, and a burst of smoky red light which forced all of them to shield their eyes. When the dust settled and they were finally able to open their eyes, they found that all of the Death Eaters had dropped to their knees, bowing their heads. Now, standing in their midst was another cloaked figure that had just Apparated into their midst.

"My lord, we --"

"_Silence_."

The members of the Order the Phoenix glanced among one another in realization as the figured turned towards them, removing his hood and revealing his face -- they had never seen him before, but already they knew that _this_ must be the man who called himself Lord Voldemort.

Was this a man? He was tall, with slightly thinning jet-black hair characteristic of a man in his middle ages. His cheekbones were chiseled and set high on his face in a way that may have once been handsome, had they not been set directly beneath deep, slit-like eyes that were an inhuman shade of red. His lips were almost non-existent and tight against his teeth, leaving his mouth in constant resemblance to a snarl.

They should have been fighting. They should have been hexing him to Kingdom-come by now, but they all felt cemented in place -- they were the younger members of the Order. Most of them hadn't even been out of Hogwarts more than a few months. Where was McGonagall? Where was Moody? Where was Dumbledore?

Voldemort circled the group, and laughed an eerie laugh that bore no semblance to humor or lightheartedness as his eyes scanned over all of them like a predator stalking his prey. "So this is Albus Dumbledore's _vanguard_," he hissed, baring his teeth in a terrible smile. "A handful of schoolchildren and their babysitters. _Imperio_."

He had calmly raised his hand, and everyone's eyes immediately began darting around, trying to pinpoint where the spell was aimed -- Sirius felt his stomach lurch as the spell hit Davie, whose eyes immediately appeared dazed and unfocused. She had been unable to fight it.

"Come to me."

The jerky motion of Davie's legs made it clear that she was trying to resist the curse as much as her will would allow, but in moments she was walking until she stood mere inches away from Voldemort, who eyed her with a cruel smile.

"I invited your mother and father to join me," he said, feigning pity for her, clucking his tongue and shaking his head. "Many a time, I did -- you look _so_ like Celesta. Gifted witch. Your bloodline is as pure as snow. Shame. You would, I'm very sure, resemble her very much more, as a _corpse_ -- perhaps we shall --"

"DON'T TOUCH HER!"

"STUPE--"

"_Protego_."

Sirius had been the first to speak up, but Lily, it turned out, would go one step further, raising her wand and beginning to shout a spell, which Voldemort countered as if it were nothing at all, knocking Lily off of her feet onto the ground.

"Lily Evans," he said with a snarl of a smile, and Lily's face showed extreme defiance at the recognition of her name as she rose shakily to her feet. "I have wanted very much to see _you_ for myself -- _Finite Incantatum._"

Davie slumped to the ground tiredly as she was released from the Imperius Curse, and Sirius immediately ran to her, shaking her fervently until she stirred; Voldemort stalked toward Lily without hesitation, glaring down at her with a sort of vigor in his glance that could be nothing but unsettling.

"It's fascinating, how such extraordinary gifts appeared in such _filthy_ blood, while your friend of proper lineage had to make due with second best -- a mistake of Fate, I expect." He reached a gnarled, pale hand out and took a hold of Lily's terrified face, her eyes glimmering slightly with unshed tears. "But no matter -- it is a mistake that is easily remedied --"

A loud bang erupted from somewhere below both of their faces, sending them both flying backward -- Lily's hand, it turned out, was still gripping her wand and she had cast a non-verbal spell. Voldemort stood, spitting on the ground in front of Lily and pointing his finger in her face -- and he started to _laugh_.

"Your defiance will cost you dearly -- how quickly, I wonder, can you reach the marsh?" he said, his grin manic, his eyes glowing evilly. He raised a hand to signal his remaining Death Eaters, and with a simultaneous crack, they all Disapparated.

It took Lily a brief moment to realize what had been said, but when she did, she immediately ran to Davie, immediately sobbing hysterically.

"The _marsh_! The marsh in Spinner's End, you've been there! Davie, my mum and dad --:

"Lily, come on, then!" Davie said, grabbing a hold of her friend's shoulders; Lily appeared to be frantic, looking as though she were trapped, hyperventilating. "We'll be fine, we can protect them if we go now --"

"They said they didn't want a Secret Keeper! I told them we could protect them! But Mum and Dad refused to have anyone put in danger for their sake, and I've --"

"Sirius, take Lily." Davie interrupted with an unfamiliar tone of authority in her voice, moving her friend sharply in the direction of her boyfriend - he seemed confused at the suggestion of being separated from Davie. "Take her on the bike, Sirius, she can't apparate when she's like this. _James_, we'll go first -- Remus, find Peter and bring him as well."

Davie gave one more nod, and she and James Disapparated. Sirius, meanwhile, gave Remus a nod before taking Lily by the arm and pulling her across the field to his flying motorbike. "C'mon. We need to go," he said gruffly, giving the bike a rev. "If Davie gets hurt --"

"Davie?!" Lily said, slinging her leg over the motorbike. "What about my _parents_ --"

"Just come _on_!" Sirius barked, taking off of the ground. Lily was his friend, one of his best friends now, but in his mind, Davie was still more important than anyone. Lily, he would protect with his life, but the two most important people to him would always be James and Davie.

James, meanwhile, was the first to arrive at the marsh in Spinner's End, with Davie appearing less than two seconds later. They immediately broke into a run down the cobblestone streets which Davie had walked over many times during the summer she had spent with the Evans family. When they reached the home that belonged to Lily's family, however, the door had already been blown clean from its hinges -- a Dark Mark was already hovering over the home; noise was still emanating from inside, but a strange glow surrounding the house marked that it was hidden from the sight of surrounding Muggles in their homes.

Davie was the first to enter the doorway, and immediately, she saw a skinny, pointy-faced girl cowering on the ground, sobbing wildly while a cloaked figure had his wand pointed straight at her -- Petunia Evans already had a cut on her face, and had her hands up, shielding herself from whatever was coming --"

"_CRUCI--"_

"EXPELLIARMUS!" Davie yelled, hitting the wizard in the back - he fell forward and his wand skittered across the linoleum floor of the welcoming room; he hit his heads on the ground, appearing to be unconscious. Davie gestured fervently for Petunia to come away, and the girl obliged, though the expression on her face was not one of gratitude for the fact that Davie had just saved her life. In fact, she looked absolutely livid.

"MUM AND DAD!" Petunia sobbed wildly, jabbing a finger hard into Davie's shoulder. "It's too late and it's all _your_ fault! If my sister wasn't one of _you --_if she wasn't like _you _or _him_ --" she jabbed her finger accusingly in James' direction, but Davie grabbed Petunia's wrist and silenced her.

"What do you _mean_ it's too late?" she asked in a low voice. "Where are your parents, Petunia --"

"They're _gone! They killed them and they took them away--"_

"You need to get out of here," Davie said, pushing Petunia hard towards the cleared doorjamb, not even allowing her to finish. "Go somewhere they won't think to look for you. Go to Vernon, go _anywhere_ but just get out of this bloody house!"

Petunia's lip quivered in fear and sorrow and anger -- but she could find nothing else to say. She cast one last glare in the direction of James Potter and ran out of the house, her footsteps clinking down the street. James and Davie watched her go, but unfortunately, that meant they had turned their back on the lone attacker until they heard a spell cast.

"MOTOVERTIGO!"

Davie screamed as the spell hit her right in the center of her back -- she went flying upward, and hit the ceiling just as Sirius and Lily ran into the doorway -- James raised his wand to slow her fall, but she was already nearly unconscious before she hit the ground.

"_Davie_," Sirius said, feeling almost nauseous at the sight of the small girl, barely lucid on the ground. He eyed the attacker, and immediately felt his blood boil - his hand moved as though out of its volition, and he raised his wand, his teeth curled into a smile. This bigoted lemming who had to hide behind a mask would never take Davie from him. _Never_. Suddenly, as his mind reeled with everything he had been through with Davie, with anger at the nerve the hooded figure possessed at attempting to take her, his lips curled back in a snarl, and his hand gripped tightly around his wand. "_Avada--_"

"_Expelliarmus_!"

Davie had raised her wand and cast the spell in a frail but audible voice, disarming Sirius, and in the confusion, the Death Eater gave one last cackle before disappearing. Davie forced herself to sit up, despite a bleeding lip, and she cradled her arm lamely. She wasn't sure what in her body had broken, but it was surely there - her legs did not feel broken, but they ached, they were cut. That was all she knew. "If you became a killer for my sake, I don't think I could forgive myself --"

"Where are they?" Lily asked in a distant voice, her gaze flitting around the entire receiving room of her home where she'd been just earlier that evening; the Christmas decorations were in shambles, ornaments broken across the floor. "Mum?! _Dad _--"

"Lily, we came as quickly as we could," James said, grabbing Lily by her shoulders from behind. "But -- Petunia was the only one left her when we arrived, she said your parents were -- they were _taken_ --"

"Taken!" Lily cried out frantically. "Then what are we still doing here? We need to find them! We need to --"

"They were already -- before they were taken, the Death Eaters already --" James began, though the truth was not easily told. "You saw the Dark Mark. Lily. It means they've killed --"

"_NO!_" Lily cried in a desperate sob, dropping to her knees on the ground, burying her head in her hands. Davie glanced at Sirius with a pained expression, giving his hand a squeeze before moving to kneel in front of her friend, wrapping her arms around her. Lily rested her head on Davie's shoulder, her tears now seeping into her shirt. _Sirius' _shirt. In the back of her mind, Lily remembered how she had been scandalized at the sight of it, had every intention of asking her why she was in such a state when she'd first arrived in the field with Sirius on the bike, but what did it matter now?

"Lily --" Davie said, tears streaming silently down her own cheeks as well, stinging the cuts on her face; she did not let it show in her voice. "I know. Lily, I know. It's alright -- you can cry," Davie continued, rubbing her friends back. "Just -- just _cry_, alright?"

"D'you think you're -- you're going to leave?" Sirius asked, brow furrowing and unsure of how to respond -- he remembered their sixth year, after Davie's parents had died, when he'd had to try and comfort Davie on the train. Davie was so much _better _at it, so much more compassionate.

Davie, however, could feel no pride in being better at anything -- the sorrow she felt was overwhelming as well. Everything about this was wrong -- Davie had felt her world collapse when she had lost her own parents, but at the same time, she had come to terms with it. She couldn't come to terms with what was happening to her best friend now. Lily Evans _was_ perfect -- she was intelligent, and beautiful, and compassionate, and brave. She _deserved_ the perfect life she'd had with her parents.

Lily's tears slowed when she heard Sirius ask her is she would leave the Order. _Could_ she leave now, after what they'd done to her family?

"_Never_," Lily said in a strong, resolute voice. "I'll never leave."

At that moment, a tired-looking Remus came running through the door -- remarkably later than the others and very much alone.

"Sorry," he panted, shaking his head, resting his hands tiredly on his knees. "I was trying to come -- quickly as I could, but I couldn't find Wormtail, I'm worried he may have gotten scared and --"

"Couldn't find him," Sirius repeated gruffly -- James and Davie noted the different tone to his voice when he spoke to Remus. It was one of hesitation, of resentment. It was a tone of suspicion.

There was a stiff silence in the room, punctuated only by Lily's ragged breaths - suspicion had never come anywhere close to creating a rift between the Marauders. What was getting into all of them? It crossed all of their minds briefly that perhaps joining the Order had been a mistake. Davie glanced up at James, who received the hint to to take Lily into his own arms as she was still crying. Davie then stood up, approaching Sirius from behind and placing a hand gently on his forearm as he was still staring Remus down.

"Sirius, come on," she said, giving his coat a short tug. "We're all -- it's been a long night and we just need to cool our heads. Think things through --"

"What I'm _thinking through_ is the fact that now you've had _two_ Unforgivable Curses put on you since we've started dealing with these wizards, Davie. Two!" he said, wheeling around, holding up two fingers close to Davie's face as though she would be unable to understand the gravity of the situation otherwise. "Am I just supposed to sit and _think_ while someone comes around to make it all three --"

"That's not important right now," Davie said calmly at the suggestion that she may be killed at some point, her gaze was slightly distant as she stared at Sirius. "Come on -- we'll go back to my house, all of us. At least if something happens there, no one outside of the Order will be hurt."

"That's alright with you?" James asked. Davie nodded without turning around. "I'll -- I'll take Lily upstairs to get some of her things, and we'll meet there --"

"Alright -- Sirius, I'll go with you on the bike,' Davie said, gripping his arm gently. "And Remus --"

"No pit stops this time, mate." Sirius said stiffly. "Let's go." He walked out the door, and Davie cast everyone apologetic glances as she followed Sirius out.

"Sirius," she said carefully, stopping him before they got onto the bike. "Why are you being like this --"

"What if Lily hadn't spoken up? If she hadn't distracted him?" Sirius asked throatily -- he didn't turn around to face Davie, but she saw his fist clench tightly. "He said he'd see you as a corpse -- if Lily hadn't spoken up --"

"This is my fault, isn't it?" Davie asked tearfully -- and suddenly, it sounded as if the months of training as an Auror in the harsh Bulgarian conditions had washed away. She sounded terrified and vulnerable and guilty and broken -- the way Sirius _hated_ hearing her. That tone had been accompanied by tears many times. That tone reminded him of the days when she could not even admit that she loved him - days where she avoided him like the plague to avoid _having_ to admit it to him. So much had changed, and yet the part of their relationship that had always made things hard seemed never to budge.

At first glance, anyone would think that between the two of them, Sirius was the wild one and needed Davie to keep him stable, that Davie was the constant that kept Sirius tethered to Earth. However, such was not the case -- Sirius, in all his hotheadedness and impulsiveness, committed to himself completely to everything he pursued or cared for. Davie was always intelligent, but flighty and indecisive -- she responded to things by running, by avoiding. Sirius was the one who kept _her_ stable.

"It's my fault," she continued, now crying openly the way she hadn't been able to while still in front of Lily. "If Lily hadn't tried to protect _me_, if I hadn't let myself be controlled, this wouldn't have happened to her family --"

"Davie," Sirius said, wheeling around and taking her by the shoulders -- he looked strangely angry, instead of sad at the whole situation. "_You_ matter to me. They all do, but if anything happened to _you --"_

"Nothing's happened to me, Sirius," Davie said, wiping at her eyes and wrapping her arms around him.

"Can't say the same for my shirt," he said with a weak laugh, rubbing Davie's back comfortingly. "We've been in the Order for a year now. Exactly a year -- and you've done a terrible job of keeping your promise."

"Promise?"

"A year ago today," Sirius said, stepping back as little as possible and holding Davie's wrist, relieved to see that the bracelet he had given her the previous Christmas was still there. "D'you remember promising not to get yourself blown up?"

"I'm not blown up --"

"Nearly --"

"Do we need to fight?" Davie asked tiredly. "I just -- I want to go."

Sirius gave a weak laugh, enjoying the brief glimpse at Davie actually being vulnerable. It was a rare sight, and he had expected it never to happen again after seeing her off to Bulgaria, yet here she was. "Alright. Let's -- let's go home then."

"Yeah," Davie nodded -- the pair got onto Sirius Black's flying motorcycle and heading back to the Maddux home.

***

_A/N's_

_Well, that was a loaded chapter, wasn't it? Not every chapter is going to be this traumatic, but for a while, there will be a lot of action sort of fighting - I'm not the best at writing action scenes, which is why updates have been slower. I can never seem to write them to my liking._

_Thank you to **amrawo** for your review, and to **shewolf2118**, **Starlight Drama**, and **MissChristinaBlack** for favoriting/subscribing!_

_Anyway, the next few chapters might be slightly slower to come, because it's where a lot of the bigger events are building up, and I'm really picky about how they sound. I'm really grateful you guys are sticking around and reading, even though my updates aren't as fast as usual. I'll try to be better about it, but I just want these chapters to be as good as I can possibly make them. It was so much easier to write a bunch of school kids! Tee-hee! Anyway, until my next update, cheers!_


	23. Chapter 23

**Chapter Twenty-Three**

_December the Twenty-Sixth, Nineteen Seventy-Eight_

"How is she?" Davie asked, coming up behind James with her arms crossed -- Lily had fallen asleep on the couch in Davie's receiving room, with James sitting on the table in front of the couch watching her, looking quite weary as he rested his head on his knees. His eyes gave away his exhaustion -- it was now nearly four in the morning and it appeared that Lily had been the only one the entire night who had gotten any sleep after crying for what had to have been at least an hour straight. Still, he managed a weak smile in Davie's direction.

"Good as can be expected," he said weakly, running a hand over the sleeping girl's hair. "I -- I think she'll be fine. _You_ were fine, weren't you? After a while."

"Fine is a funny word for it," Davie admitted with a sad smile. "But -- yeah. Yeah, I was. After a while. After a _long_ while."

Indeed, they all seemed fine -- but very tired. James was the first besides Lily to fall asleep, sitting on the floor and resting his head on the couch where he girlfriend was resting. Remus fell asleep in one armchair, while Sirius and Davie somehow managed to both fit into another.

Davie, however, did not manage to stay asleep for long -- though the bones in her arm were healing on their own, the feeling of them repairing was a strange dull ache that was difficult to ignore. It was this ache that caused her to be awake to her a soft knock on the door.

Momentarily, she wondered if it would be safe to open the door -- but if it were an attacker, she rationalized, they would not be likely to bother with niceties such as knocking on the door. Sliding out from under the arm Sirius had draped over her, she put on her slippers and tiptoed quietly through the door, careful not to wake anyone.

Closing her hand around the doorknob and twisting it, her eyes took a short while in the dim light to recognize what she saw, but once she did possess any recognition of the situation, she was unsure of what response it deserved -- there, standing on her doorstop in a black traveling cloak was Severus Snape.

"I don't suppose you're turning yourself in," Davie snarled in fury, whipping out her wand, but nonetheless shutting the door behind her. If this was meant to get ugly, no one else had to be involved. "I know you were there tonight --"

"Lily is alive, then?" Severus interrupted carelessly. "I am here for _no_ other reason --"

"_STUPE--"_

But Snape raised his own wand and sliced it through the air, silently cancelling Davie's spell. "_Lily_ --"

"Lily is alive. She's inside, and you are staying _away _from her. _Forever_, unless you want me to kill you." Davie said, giving her wand a hard jab in Snape's direction; the wind blew a tendril of hair across Davie's face, then with another sharp gust, cleared her hair away from her face; her features seemed colder, sharper than Severus Snape had ever seen them. For the first time, Davie Maddux did not look like a child to him. "You have no right to be here -- I _know_ you were there tonight --"

"The letter," Snape said, still not caring for a word Davie said -- Davie looked at the same time infuriated and affronted and -- surprised at the fact that after months of training, Snape still elicited some level of sympathy from her. "Did you give her the letter --"

"She doesn't care about your bloody letter," Davie hissed angrily. "She just lost her parents, and you expect her to care what you have to say? I never gave her the letter and I never _will_ because you don't deserve her."

For a moment, Snape's expression quivered as though he were pained - but in Davie's mind, he should no longer be capable of feeling it. Not after what he was doing with his life now. He had honestly never had high praise for Davie - it was the reason Snape gave for the fact that the silly girl wanted to be friends with him. In his mind, _she_ was nobody except for Lily's best friend. And now even she loathed him -- instead of confusing him, it seemed to make everything clear. He had nothing left to draw him to this ruse of the side of '_good_'.

Instead of saying anything, _doing_ anything, he let out a ragged breath and disappeared with a pop.

Davie simply stood at the doorstep in disbelief, pulling Sirius' shirt more tightly around herself as she stared around the empty space around her home -- it was cold, and the sky was now turning a hazy shade of indigo instead of pitch black. The only thought that came to mind was that it very lonely, and very quiet --

-- until, when a small rock fell downward from the balcony, and Davie's gaze shot upward; she saw Remus standing there, staring down at her questioningly. In the blink of an eye, he disappeared, reappearing right in front of Davie, crossing his arms.

"Are you keeping secrets from us, Davie? About Snape?" Remus asked, shaking his head quietly. "I heard everything --"

"I know, I ought to have hexed him. I ought to have killed him," Davie said in a low, hostile tone. "But -- Remus, you can't tell Sirius, but… Severus and I were friends. They can't know about this. I didn't think it would come to this. And I think you know, it's hard for me to just forget about a friend. Especially not after what happened to Romnic. So _much_ has happened Remus. I don't even know how to describe it to Sirius anymore."

"He can be difficult, I know," Remus nodded. "But -- he'll understand you, I think."

"I want to apologize for earlier, by the way -- I don't know what got into him," Davie said quietly, reaching out and giving Remus a pat on the arm. "He's just been worried about all of us. All of this is harder on him than he lets on, but I'm sure you all knew --"

"He didn't spend as much time with us while you were gone -- dunno if he wrote you about that," Remus said, pacing a bit and leaning against the wall of the house with his arms still crossed. "Spent most of his time at the Tonks' house, actually. He was a bit upset -- it's different for him now. James has Lily -- he's never really had to deal with that without you around."

"Well, it's good for us. We have to be ready for anything, don't we? For all of us. I know _I _needed it," Davie said honestly. "I needed to learn to be on my own, Sirius needed to learn to be on his own --"

"He doesn't seem to have learned much of anything," Remus pointed out matter-of-factly. Davie sighed quietly. "That's the one thing Sirius doesn't ever want to do is change."

"I know," Davie nodded quietly, sighing and relaxing her arms tiredly, speaking to Remus with ease despite not having seen him for months. "And I can't blame him. Changing means growing up. Growing up means responsibility, and expectations to live up to -- he's already worried about that. You know, he never said anything, not even to me, but after --"

"What his mother did," Remus provided knowingly. "I know what it's like -- not to be accepted. But not by my own family."

"But you know what else I realized?" Davie said abruptly, a small smile settling onto her face. "After being away all that time, I realized that I love that prat more than anything else in this world, dysfunctional as he is."

Remus laughed, shaking his head at Davie's choice of words; despite the fact that she worried terribly about what others thought, she always spoke so bluntly. It was the very trait that had always made her and Sirius clash throughout their time at Hogwarts, and yet strangely enough, it was probably a trait they shared that made them right for one another as adults.

"It's freezing out -- your welcome home present is going to be a terrible flu at this rate, we ought to get back in," Remus pointed out, placing his hand on the door handle.

"Are you joking? After spending more than half of December in Bulgaria?" Davie laughed, rolling her eyes, though obligingly allowed Remus to open the door to the house. "This weather seems a bit like summertime, there isn't even any snow --"

"_Where've you two been?_"

Remus and Davie were quieted when they found Sirius standing in the doorway -- his question was quiet, but laced with suspicion; his gaze was fixed not on Davie, but on Remus. Remus glanced at Davie, and he momentarily considered simply telling the truth about who Davie had gone out to meet, but as a friend, she had made a request of him to keep her conversation with Severus a secret, and Remus could not bring himself to betray her trust.

"Davie wanted some air," Remus explained. Unimpressed, Sirius looked at Davie, who first glanced at Remus, then walked back up to Sirius, touching his arm gently.

"Sirius, I just had a lot on my mind and couldn't sleep. I didn't want to wake you, you were snoring," she explained; it was a half-truth, anyway. With Davie's confirmation, Sirius gave Remus a stiff nod. Remus excused himself from their company, and Davie gave Sirius' arm a swift tug, staring at him appraisingly in the light of the slowly growing dawn. "What's gotten into you?" she asked in concern. "I know it's been a long night but -- _bloody hell_, Sirius, it's _Remus_. He's been our friend forever --"

"Something's making me uneasy," he whispered honestly. "I know he's our friend. I'm sorry -- I -- I don't know who we should trust anymore --"

"Trust _me _when I say that he's still the same old Remus. I can tell," Davie said, halfway between resolution and pleading. "You're getting paranoid, Sirius."

"They killed Lily's parents and they had nothing to do with this," Sirius said -- Davie saw in him a a sort of disillusionment that he had certainly never possessed while they were in school, and she suspected that for once, Sirius Black did not consider something a game. "What about us? You, Lily, James -- d'you think they'll spare any mercy for any of you?"

"No, I don't." Davie said honestly -- and Sirius suddenly saw the difference in her as well. She wasn't crying or cowering, she wasn't shaking. She wasn't looking to be protected, and that, Sirius was sure, was the most unsettling change. If she no longer needed his help, his protectiveness, what good was he?

"We knew they wouldn't spare a single one of us when we agreed to this Sirius. Remember?" Davie asked, thinking back to the day, just a year earlier, when Dumbledore had called them into his office. Just as she and Sirius both thought of the day, the way Fawkes had flown in the window and across the room, the first beam of sunlight burst in through the windows of the home.

Davie crossed her arms quietly, looking down at the floor, squinting slightly in adjustment to the light. The previous night at the party, it had been easy to pretend things were the same as they had been in previous years when they had been protected by the enchantments at Hogwarts -- but now that they were out of school and back to their real lives, it was clear that they weren't.

Without warning, Davie practically lurched forward, wrapping her arms around Sirius with such fervor that even he seemed confused, to the point that he no longer felt quite as angry. He reciprocated the embrace, resting his face against her hair, huffing audibly.

"Bloody hell, what am I going to do with you, _woman_?" he asked with a throaty chuckle. "You never were good at staying out of trouble."

"Look who's talking," Davie laughed quietly, still resting her head against his chest. When Sirius gave a loud yawn and pulled away to stretch, he looked up and noticed James stirring. Sirius and Davie moved over to the couch as he woke up, swiping his glasses from off of the table -- all at once, three pairs of eyes caught sight of the bottle of firewhiskey they had been drinking from the previous night. Had it only _been_ the previous night? Davie kicked it away in resentment, sending it skittering across the wood floor.

"What do you think she's going to do when she gets up?" James asked quietly, looking down at Lily, who was still completely out cold.

"Cry." Davie said in a solemn, knowing voice. "Refuse to eat for a short while, be terribly quiet--"

"You don't think --" Sirius began carefully, stepping up and looking Lily over -- she was even more a mess than the rest of them, which was saying quite a bit, considering what they had all been through the previous night. "-- maybe we should just modify her memory--"

"No." Davie said resolutely, shaking her head - her eyes grew slightly teary just looking at her sleeping friend. "Trust me -- it's something you need to face. Something you need to deal with." Davie sighed, glancing at James and scooting closer, kneeling next to him. "I think you'll be the one she'll be most comforted by. Just being there and not leaving her when she wants to cry," Davie said carefully, then, she added with a sidelong glance towards Sirius, "I know that one from experience too."

Standing up quietly, Davie moved back towards Sirius, but still looking at James. "I suspect she'll be waking soon -- I think we'll leave you two. Shall we fix some breakfast or something?" Davie asked Sirius, who assented; the pair departed to the kitchen.

Meanwhile, just as Sirius placed his arm around Davie and left, Lily stirred a bit, rubbing her tired eyes as James watched her anxiously. As her emerald green orbs finally opened completely, glancing at her surroundings questioningly, she let out a shuddering breath, covering her face with her hands - finding herself in Davie's home in the same tattered clothes, with the same bruises and aching confirmed what she had hoped had been a bad dream. It had been _Christmas_, they had all been together just hours before it had all happened.

"Shh," James said, leaning forward and placing his arms around Lily's shoulders. "Lily --"

"I wasn't _dreaming_," she said, throwing her arms around James and seeking comfort, hugging him tightly - James was relieved that Lily didn't shy away from everyone the way Davie had. "James, my mum and dad -- it's all my fault!"

"No, it isn't -- Lily, _listen to me_," he said sternly, holding his girlfriend tightly. "It shouldn't have happened, none of us asked for this. But -- but we have to keep going, right? We're not going to let Voldemort do this to anyone else. Not to any other families. No more."

"We won't," Lily agreed, though she continued to cry, practically soaking through the shoulder of James' shirt. "But --Mum and Dad are gone. Petunia will never speak to me again. I feel so alone --"

"No," James said, pulling back and holding Lily almost at arms' length, gripping her shoulders and looking almost piercingly into her tearful green eyes. "Lily, you will never be alone, do you understand me? _Never_. I'll be here for you -- always."

"Will you, James?" Lily asked in a vulnerable, pleading voice. "_Will you_?"

"Forever, Lily," he agreed as he pulled himself on the sofa next to her, pulling her close again and stroking her red hair lovingly. "I won't leave your side, Lily. Somehow -- you and me. We'll find a way to get justice for your parents. For everyone. You and me."

***

_A/N's_

_A lot of talking going on in this chapter, but not a whole lot of action. Bigger events will be happening very soon!_

_Thanks to __**siriusfanno1**__, __**Little-Miss-Pessimistic**__, and __, for subscribing, and thank you to __**amrawo **__for the review!_

_Keeping the notes short this time, but as always, feedback is appreciated. Cheers!_


	24. Chapter 24

**Chapter Twenty-Four**

_August the Ninth, Nineteen Hundred Seventy-Nine_

"Where are the girls?" James said, hands resting on his knees tiredly. He had just apparated into the receiving room of the Maddux home, that had become a secondary headquarters, it would appear, for the younger members of the Order at Dumbledore's direction, insisting they were safer if they remained together as much as possible. Remus, Peter, Sirius, and Frank Longbottom had arrived at about the same time having just left a confrontation with the Death Eaters, this time in a Muggle shopping centre. They had all committed to apparating out once they reached open space, but it appeared that some had lagged behind.

"Girls? I thought they were right behind us --"

"Don't suppose you mean me," Alice said, appearing in the center of the room with a slight stumble. "Davie ran back in to look for any injured Muggles and Lily ran in after her --"

With a loud crack, Lily and Davie appeared about a foot away from Alice, with Davie clutching her face, her teeth bared in pain.

"_Episkey_!" Lily said quickly, pointing her wand at Davie's face, which was covered in blood on one side -- wiping the blood with her sleeve, everyone on the room caught sight of a wound running alongside her right eye stitching itself up.

"We were supposed to be running!" Lily said breathlessly, staring at Davie as though she were a ghost. "Why did you go back?"

"I thought I heard someone," Davie said, looking slightly dazed from the ordeal, still wiping at her face, clearing the blood that had obscured her vision. "They were burning down the shop and I heard someone inside and I couldn't--"

"It's because they _know_ what your weakness is," Sirius spoke up, not approaching Davie for the sake of not getting too angry with her for what she'd done. "They killed your parents, they knew you would come running back--"

"I'm not _stupid_!" Davie snapped heatedly, getting up and storming off towards the kitchen, leaving everyone looking slightly exasperated at the pair. Lily shot Sirius and aggrieved glance for not being able to hold his tongue until Davie's nerves had settled; then, she hurried off after her best friend, shutting the door behind them.

"You really ought to have left when we gave the signal," Lily said in a chiding, almost motherly voice, walking over and touching Davie's arm from behind; Davie was standing over the wash basin, looking out the window in the dark and moonlit kitchen.

"I know -- Sirius was right," Davie admitted quietly. "But -- Lily, I can't believe what you did. I never knew you could fight like that," Davie added with deep admiration for her best friend. "What's gotten into you?"

Lily paused, taking a slow step so that she stood against the wash basin with her best friend, and she gave a quiet laugh. She gave her tousled red hair a slight push out of her face. "Do you remember how after you lost parents, all you could think about was becoming an Auror?" she asked in a distant voice. Davie nodded in silent assent. "It's that, and _more_. I need to do this more than ever -- for my family --"

"I doubt Petunia would appreciate the effort --"

"No," Lily said hesitantly, and Davie glanced at her questioningly. "I mean -- the family I'm _going_ to have one day."

"One day?" Davie asked incredulously. "Lily, you're not pregnant, are you?"

"No, silly," Lily laughed, shaking her head and turning to face Davie completely, looking at her friend seriously and grabbing her hands. "But you're not too far off the mark."

"_Merlin's bollocks_, Lils--"

"James asked me to marry him."

At this, Davie's jaw dropped - briefly, she was wide-eyed and absolutely silent. When it finally set in, however, Davie forgot all about the injuries she had sustained that night, or the fact that she and Sirius had come close to another row. She let out a loud squeal, throwing her arms around her friend and jumping excitedly -- everyone else burst into the room to try and see the commotion after Davie, in her enthusiasm, knocked over a metal bowl that was sitting on the table.

"You're getting _married_!" Davie yelled excitedly, still holding Lily by the hand as she rushed over to James, engulfing him in a tight, one-armed hug as well. Lily looked up bashfully as James, who looked quite taken aback by Davie's excitement. Frank and Alive, who had recently eloped themselves, smiled knowingly at one another.

It seemed that this was the first time any of them were learning of this recent development, and they immediately coalesced curiously around Lily and James, asking how long they had been keeping their engagement a secret.

Now that the cat was out of the bag, however, the wedding became the subject of nearly all talk amongst the lot of them. Frankly, any time that was not spent fighting Death Eaters was spent putting together plans for the wedding -- it could not, they knew, be anything over-the-top, even though Lily dreamed of a beautiful, elegant wedding as much as the next girl. It was simply not an option at the moment, with how much danger they had been in the middle of as of late. It would attract too much attention. Davie, however, had been the first to volunteer her home as the site of the ceremony and reception -- the Maddux home was large and scenic enough to provide a cozy atmosphere for the wedding, even if it was no mansion.

After a few weeks of preparation, however, the festivities seemed to be drawing closer and closer, and everyone seemed to be growing more and more excited. This night in particular, the boys had gone out for their bachelor's party - though, since they were not supposed to be conspicuous about their activities, they were limited to pub-crawling in Hogsmeade. This left the young ladies - Lily Evans, Davie, Alice Longbottom, and Marlene McKinnon - at the Maddux home alone with a few bottles of Sherrywort's Sparklers Champagne, which signaled the drinker that they had consumed too much by causing them to float into the air.

"You're getting _married_ -- isn't it insane?" Davie laughed giddily as the girls clinked their glasses together. As Davie took a sip, however, Alice nudged her shoulder humorously.

"Are you forgetting? Marlene and I have tied the knot as well," Alice grinned knowingly, hooking her finger around the neck of Davie's glass and momentarily preventing her from taking a sip. "It's the curse of the Order, Davie, it means you're next! Don't you think so, Lily?"

"Definitely!" Lily laughed, already a bit pink in the face and evidently the worst at holding her alcohol as she took another sip. "You remember, don't you? I told you that Sirius loved you, the summer before seventh year --"

"Hold on a moment," Davie laughed, shaking her head and waving her hand. "Sirius Black? Married?" Davie laughed and turned dramatically to the nearby window, placing her hand exaggeratedly on her forehead. "Is that a pig flying? Oh, look --"

"Come on, don't be thick," Alice said, laughing and shaking her head as Davie took another big sip of her drink.

"We're not there yet, I don't think," Davie said, dabbing the side of her mouth with her sleeve and looking rather squeamish at the mention of being _married_ to Sirius Black. "I mean, look at him with that hair and that motorbike of his --"

"I don't know -- don't tell Frank, but I think Sirius looks a bit dashing this way. You can't deny it," Alice smirked, "Sirius Black has _never_ looked better --"

"This isn't _my_ night, why can't we pick on Lily?" Davie laughed. "It's her night, after all."

"Because," Lily explained with a broad grin. "Since it's _my_ night, I'd like to pick on you just a bit more--"

"Wonderful. Wonderful best friend, you are," Davie laughed. "Alright, I admit it -- Sirius looks even better now. Except for that earring. I swear, sometimes, I think I'm going to rip it right out while he's sleeping --"

"You're _sleeping_ together?!" Marlene McKinnon squealed excitedly, nearly falling into Lily in a fit of giggle and getting a small splatter of her drink on her trousers.

"No!" Davie said, placing her glass down onto the table with a loud clink, shaking her hand defensively and looking around at the other girls. "I mean, we're sleeping in the same _house_ -- I sleep upstairs, though!"

"You mean you've never --"

"_No_!" Davie yelped, eyes wide as she cut off Alice's question before she even managed to ask it. While Lily was privy to this information, it was clear by the way that Alice and Marlene were looking at one another that they definitely were not.

"Bloody hell," Alice said, her jaw dropping. "That man must _love _you, you're probably the only girl he ever dated that he didn't boink within a month --"

"It's not as if he's never laid a hand on her," Lily said quickly, coming to her friend's defense with a laugh. "I think they've practiced snogging more extensively than any couple I know, they've gotten it down to an art. You know, one night, James and I came into this room and we sat down on the couch -- that couch _right there_ --"

Lily gestured at the couch that Alice had propped her feet up on, but Davie swatted Lily's hand away. "The two sat right on me! And you know what they were coming in here to do --"

"Excuse me, I'm getting _married_, so don't start with me!" Lily laughed, taking another sip from her drink. "And mark my words, Davie. You'll be next --"

"Well, obviously, I'll be the next in this room to get married," Davie laughed, taking another drink as well and reclining into her armchair. "Considering the fact that come next week, you'll all be married _already_."

***

"Still can't believe you didn't tell me, mate," Sirius chortled with a slight slur to his voice - the boys were at their third pub for the night, which, considering the fact that they were all stumbling a bit, might be their last before retiring for the evening. "Getting married!"

"One Marauder down, and three to go!" James said, waving his index finger as though it were a wand and pointing at all of his friends in turn.

"Not anytime soon for me, I'm sure, unfortunately," Remus chuckled, taking another swig of firewhiskey. "Wha'bout you, Padfoot?"

"D'you think?" Sirius asked, face wrinkling questioningly. This reaction caught the other young men by surprise. They'd expected denial, indignation, a speech about liking his freedom far too much, a finding Davie's attitude far too cumbersome -- this was clearly not that.

"Well," Frank Longbottom piped in with a roguish smile. "With everyone else tying the knot left and right, what's it hurt?"

"How 'bout it, then, mate?" James beamed, red in the face. "Our little secret, just between us men. Tomorrow, I'll be the groom, you'll be the best man. Maybe a month or two from now, we'll swap," he pointed out with a wink.

Sirius laughed and rolled his eyes to keep appearances - but the idea seemed rather pleasant. Rather pleasant, indeed.

***

_A/N's_

_Short, fluffy chapter! It was going to be longer, but I had quite a few people asking for an update, so I spliced a longer chapter to oblige - has Harry Potter weekend on ABC Family motivated this sudden rise in readers? Because if so, I'm not complaining. We can have Harry Potter weekend every weekend if it means more readers!_

_Not much happening in this chapter that we didn't see coming - we all knew Lily and James would need to tie the knot eventually. But since things are starting to get a little messy, I wanted to throw in a little bit of screen time for them to just be kids, since that's what they are pretty much. _

_Thank you __**RoxyBabyX**__, to __**d112hpfan**__, to __**LaLa-036**__, to __**KaelaCullen, **__and again, to __**dancingqueensillystring **__for your subscription and feedback. Seeing all of this feedback has really made my weekend! I'm going to be on spring break soon, so hopefully I can get a lot more writing down! I'm still in the process of transcribing the next few chapters from the notebook they're written in, but I'll definitely hurry at it! _

_The next couple chapters are chapters I really like, and once I get done fine-tuning them, I hope you will too! Thanks for all your feedback and support! Cheers!_


	25. Chapter 25

**Chapter Twenty-Five**

_September the Twenty-Fourth, Nineteen Hundred Seventy-Nine_

It was the brim of autumn, and the day that Lily and James Potter were set to return from their five-day honeymoon in Ireland. Remus and Peter were spending to day in Hogsmeade in order to pick the pair up at King's Cross Station, but Sirius Black and Davie Maddux were conspicuously absent. They were not, however, getting into the trouble the way they usually were, but instead, babysitting a very rowdy and rambunctious Nymphadora Tonks.

"Daddy's got the flu and Mummy says he'll give me sniffles," the pink-haired girl explained as she entertained her '_Auntie Davie_' by turning the irises of her eyes into a spinning flurry of kaleidoscope colors.

"She's darling!" Davie repeated for what Sirius was sure had to be the millionth time just that day - Sirius Black could only wonder what it was with girls and little children that it turned them into what a Muggle would call a _broken record_. "Sirius, where _are_ --"

"Hold _on_, I didn't think I was babysitting you too," Sirius laughed, coming in from the kitchen with a plate full of Pumpkin Pasties, Mallowpuffs, and a few bottles of cherry-flavored pop. "Honestly, Davie, you're so spoiled."

"I know."

"Brat."

"Why are you being so mean to Auntie Davie? She's not a brat!" Dora asked, looking perfectly scandalized. "I think she's nice!"

"Yeah, _Uncle Siri_, aren't I nice?" Davie pouted. Sirius reached out and pinched her cheek teasingly.

However, in quite the way that was common for little children, Dora was not content to be sitting around after partaken in a tray full of sweets. What had started off as a calm and innocent afternoon suddenly turned into Davie and Sirius having to chase little Dora around the entire house, out in the yard, on the balcony, down the banister, and back down to the living room, where she flopped down tiredly onto a sofa.

"Thank Merlin," Sirius muttered under his breath.

"I want a story!" Dora whined, though her eyes were already starting to droop shut. With both hands, Dora grabbed a hold of both Sirius and Davie and tugged them down on either side of her. "_Story_ --"

With a small laugh, Davie wriggled to grab her wand out of her back pocket and pointed it at the bookshelves on the other side of the room, gently muttering, "_Accio Book_."

Carefully, an old-looking, dusty book wafted through the air and into Davie's hand - The Tales of Beedle the Bard. She opened it, and began reading a story entitled 'The Wizard and the Hopping Pot' to the little girl, who had nestled comfortably into her side. Sirius gave a small chuckle at the sight, leaning his arm on the back of the sofa behind Davie. It would turn out that her very animated, whimsical manner of speaking translated well into reading stories to little children - this, he mused, must be what Davie's childhood had been like, with a mum and a dad, enjoying themselves together --

And then, Sirius paused, realizing that he'd just equated himself and Davie to a 'mum and dad' - Sirius Black? Daydreaming? Had he let all of this marriage talk get to his head? The idea, it appeared, seemed to have stuck in the past week or so. He and Davie had been staying in the house on their own - though Davie still slept in her own room upstairs while Sirius remained on the sofa - for the entirety of Lily and James' honeymoon. In fact, even though Sirius didn't have so much as his own bed in the Maddux house, he felt very much at home there, as though it were _his and Davie's_ home.

"_Rather than reveal the true source of his power, he pretended that his potions _-- oh, thank goodness, I think she's fallen asleep," Davie said, looking down at Dora, then up at Sirius, shaking him from his stupor. "I didn't think babysitting would be so difficult, I've never done it before --"

"I've been the one doing all the babysitting," Sirius taunted, rapping on Davie's nose gently with the tip of his knuckle. "You've been running around playing with Dora all day --"

"Excuse me? Who's the one doing the reading?" Davie retorted in a whisper. "Honestly, Sirius --"

But she was cut off by Sirius leaning over Dora's head and placing a chaste, very un-Sirius kiss on Davie's lips, an act which caught her very much off guard. Sirius lingered close to her, leaning his forehead against hers and chuckling.

"Davie, can I ask you something?"

Davie gulped slightly, eyes widening - the wedding, watching over Dora, that kiss, had he started taken all of it more to hear than she'd expected? Could it be possible the girls were right? "S-sure," she stammered quietly.

"Do you --"

"Do I --?"

Sirius paused, and Davie's stomach churned.

"Do you hate my earring that much?"

"I _do, _so much that I'll yank it out!" Davie let her breath out in a sudden puff, wrinkling her nose at Sirius and grabbing him by the ear - despite the fact that it hurt terribly, Sirius gave a laugh, knowing what Davie had been thinking.

"No need!" Sirius laughed, struggling to keep his voice low as he swatted Davie's hand away, removing the dragon-tooth earring on his own and tossing it nonchalantly onto the table with a tiny clink. "Done, see? It's that easy. Lily told me you loathed it weeks ago."

"I do," Davie chuckled -- but she froze at the strange, unusually thoughtful look that flashed through Sirius' grey eyes when she phrased her assent in precisely that way.

"I do -- too," Sirius said, stumbling over his words a bit, though he quickly recovered his usual nonchalant demeanor, flashing Davie a disarming grin. "I mean, you know, if you hate it, then so do I. It's gone, see?"

"Good," Davie laughed quietly, though it was truncated by her giving a small yawn of her own - Sirius chortled.

"Alright, I think it's time we all had a bit of a rest," he pointed out - and he was evidently more tired than he let on, because within minutes, the three of them were all sleeping on the sofa, clustered together rather cozily. This was the scene that met the others when they opened the door to the house - Andromeda had arrived to pick up Nymphadora, coincidentally at the same time that Remus and Peter arrived with Lily and James.

"Would you _look _at that? We leave for five days and they're practically playing house together," James said with a smirk, walking a circle around the sofa, making sure not to step too loudly. None of the sleeping inhabitants stirred. Lily suppressed a squeal, and with the camera hanging around her neck, she snapped a photo of the three. However, at the sound of the loud click, Nymphadora woke up quickly -- when she raised her tiny fist to stretch her arm, she accidentally socked Davie right in the chin; this woke Davie up quickly, but, being startled, she gave a jump and hit her forehead against Sirius' forehead. Obviously, he woke up with a start as well. In a matter of seconds, the picture perfect moment had dissolved into a mad mix of yelping and groaning.

"Ouch!" Davie whined, rubbing her eyes and grimacing -- she was the first to notice that it was no longer only the three of them in the house. "You're all back!" she said excitedly, getting up and scurrying over to Lily. "How was the trip -- am I an auntie?" Davie asked Lily with a playful wink despite the fact that her eyes were still a bit droopy from sleep. Lily laugh, flushing lightly as she gave her friend a playful shove.

"C'mon over here, Dora," Andromeda said, gesturing for her daughter to rise from the couch. "Did you have fun?"

" I did!" the little girl grinned. "Uncle Siri fed me pasties and chased me onto the balcony and --"

"Thaaa-at's enough, you!" Sirius said with a nervous laugh, not wanting his cousin to know how rowdy they'd been playing with her daughter. "She's a little angel, 'Dromeda. An angel --"

"Now I _know_ you're lying," Andromeda laughed, scooping her daughter up into her arms and planting a kiss into the little girls hair. "Anyway, Ted's feeling loads better now and we're going to have dinner and try to get this little monster back to sleep," she laughed, ruffling Nymphadora's hair lovingly. "The Floo alright, Davie?"

"Sure, sure!" Davie grinned, walking over and giving Dora a goodbye embrace. "Anytime you need a babysitter, I'd love to watch her again, 'Dromeda."

"Yeah -- quite a cozy little family if I do say so myself. Anytime you want practice playing a mum, I'd be more than happy," she replied with an impish, knowing grin. "Alright, then! Off we are!"

She made her way to the fireplace, and disappeared with a crack. Meanwhile, the others focused back on one another.

"So, dinner as planned?" Davie said with a smile, looking around at the others. "Or are the newlyweds too exhausted?"

"I'll never turn down dinner if it's someone else's treat -- you've got this covered, don't you, Padfoot?" James chuckled, socking Sirius jokingly on the shoulder.

"Yeah -- yeah, dinner sounds brilliant," Sirius said, his grin at the suggestion a bit more enthusiastic than everyone else believed the situation called for. "Somewhere nice, then?"

"_No_!" Davie groaned insistently. "I thought we were just going to the Three Broomsticks, I'm completely knackered after chasing Dora around all day."

"Suit yourself - it's my treat either way," Sirius said, and something in his smile seemed to catch everyone else's attention except for Davie's. Davie insisted that she and Lily need to go fix themselves up a bit - Lily had been in transit, and Davie been babysitting, so it was understandable in any case, but the boys noted that after half an hour, they looked no different apart from the fact that their hair was brushed - which, after traveling by Floo, would make no difference anyway.

When they arrived in Diagon Alley, in the fireplace of the Three Broomsticks, they were greeted as they always were - they were, without doubt, a well-loved lot, there was no way around it. They were shown to their table, and attended to quite quickly - even Sirius, who was used to being catered to in his youth, seemed unusually appreciative of how well they were being treated and how well the dinner was going.

"So, Lily," Davie said with a bright, mischievous grin as she swallowed a spoonful of her French onion soup. "Am I an auntie yet?"

"Davie!" Lily yelped, her cheeks brightening as Davie commenced to chuckle to herself.

'What's wrong?" Davie asked. "There's nothing wrong with asking, is there?"

"There certainly isn't," Sirius interrupted, clearing his throat loudly - he had been seated directly across from Davie at their long table, and now, everyone seemed to be staring - even those sitting at different tables - as Sirius got up and stood next to her. "Davie, we've -- ah," he said, wrinkling his nose and scratching the back of his neck. "We've been through a lot together. A whole lot. Enough to make me realize that I'd be a total prat not to snag you while I've got you… so -- how about it?"

"You can't ask like _that_, Padfoot!" Lily piped up chidingly before Davie had any chance to respond - though in fairness, Davie really didn't need any further clarification to figure out what Sirius was saying in his roundabout way. "You need to ask a proper question to get a proper answer."

"It's proper you lot want? Alright, than. Proper, it is." Sirius said with a throaty chuckle. He locked eyes with Davie and slowly dropped to one knee next to her chair, taking a hold of her hand, partially in fear that she would either faint or run away at the thought of all these eyes on her. "Davina Astrid Maddux - will you do me the honor of granting me your hand in marriage?"

And there is was again, the moment that Sirius had experienced with Davie many times before; that moment where she simply stared and stared and didn't change her expression in any way that might indicate the way she was feeling - but she always said yes after those moments, and so, for once, Sirius was enveloped with such a sense of anxiety.

And this was why her answer confused him greatly.

"I'm an Auror," she said, her voice somewhat timid and hoarse as though she were having a hard time getting the words out. "I could -- Sirius, you know what could happen to me --"

"Obviously, that's why I want to marry you!"

But Davie simply sighed, her eyes sad. "I want to marry you too, Sirius," she said, placing her hand over his. "And I will, when this entire war is over - we'll have all the time in the world. I just don't --"

"Are you saying no?"

"_No_!" Davie said, her grip on Sirius' hand tightening. "Sirius, I do want to spend the rest of my life with you. And I _will_ - but if something happens to me, I don't want you to be a teenage widower. I don't want that for you."

"So --" Sirius said, feeling a bit dumb now but remaining on his knee next to Davie. "What does that mean for --"

"I'm only saying this for you," Davie said in a quiet voice, trying to make the moment as private as possible, even though they were in the middle of a pub. "I want to marry you. I want you to be with me forever - but if something happens to me, ifI don't see the end of this, I want you to be able to start over --"

"Start over?! You think I'm going to bloody pack up and move on if you --"

"Sirius, please," Davie said in a slightly choked voice, cheeks reddening at the prospect of everyone staring. "I'm saying _yes_, Sirius, but I'm asking you to wait. It won't be long. I know it - we just need to wait a little longer. _Please understand_."

Sirius paused, his grip on Davie's remaining tight. His expression was thoughtful, and for once, Davie felt what Sirius felt, waiting and wondering for a response. Only Sirius seemed to be choking on his words, because they didn't seem to want to come out.

"So," Lily said hesitantly, hoping to break the poignant silence. "Are you -- _engaged_, then?"

"Of course we are!" Davie said shrilly, and at that, Sirius' eyebrows jumped as though he had only then understood Davie's sentiments as something other than an outright rejection. Sirius immediately got to his feet, pulling Davie to her and kissing his _fiancée _soundly, not caring who was able to see.

And suddenly, in the way that was custom for the young friends, all of the tension that had been so thick just moments earlier seemed to dissolve - save for Peter, who these days seemed a bit quieter than usual, though everyone thought it had just been him being tired from work; he'd taken on a job as a clerk at Gringott's, and they were all quite assured that working with goblins all day would tire them out terribly as well.

They proceeded back to the Maddux home after a good stroll down Diagon Alley - Sirius spared no opportunity to throw around the word 'fiancee', causing Davie to laugh shiftily and turn bright red - and everyone was incredibly tired. Davie had shifted things around a bit so that Lily and James were both able to stay, at least temporarily, together in one of the guest rooms - Dumbledore still insisted that it was best for as many of the younger members of the Order as possible to stay together, and so, Remus took the other guest bedroom, and Sirius went back and forth between the study and the sofas, depending on whichever spot was more to his liking on a given evening; Peter spent more time at his own home, despite Dumbledore's directions, citing the need to care for his aging parents, which his friends ultimately were obliged to be understanding of.

Tonight, however, after everyone had settled down, Davie peered out of her bedroom door and looked down the stairway - Sirius wasn't on the sofa that evening. Quietly, she tiptoed out of her room, already clad in a nightshirt and slippers, and moved toward the study, where she saw Sirius settled in the daybed by the window.

"That can't be very comfortable," Davie said in a slightly nervous voice, causing his to turn towards the doorway immediately. "You must miss having a real bed."

"Yeah, well," Sirius laughed good naturedly, sitting up and shifting the thin wool blanket he'd placed over himself. "There aren't really any more free beds left, are there?"

"Well," Davie said hesitantly, her cheeks tingeing slightly with color. "There's -- there's one."

"D'you buy another one in Diagon Alley without me looking?" Sirius chuckled.

"No," Davie said, clearing her throat and averting her gaze shiftily - she was suddenly unsure of whether she should have acted so impulsively as to come over here to asked what she'd planned. "I mean -- well, I meant _mine_."

Sirius paused, staring at his fiancee in slight surprise. "Come again?" he asked with a certain degree of incredulity. "You mean -- you and I --"

Granted, Sirius had _been_ in far less than innocent positions with girls when they'd been in school - empty classrooms, closets, behind greenhouses - but there was a certain level of intimacy and commitment behind really, legitimately sharing a bed. Not simply being _in_ a girl's bed, but --

"If you'd like to," Davie continued, slightly encouraged by his hesitation, because it meant her was thinking it through, in any case. It meant he understood how much of a step it was for Davie to even be making this suggestion - the fact that they were engaged, that they'd actually made a mention of marriage one day, was apparently enough to change everything.

"Alright," Sirius said, clearing his throat and shifting his face into a nonchalant grin as he stood up and strode towards Davie, placing his hand into hers and nodding towards the hallway. Davie gave a delicate cough and the two shuffled off hesitantly down the hall to the open bedroom door, not noticing another door in the hallways ajar. As the two retired into what was now _their_ room, a high-pitched, muffled giggle drifted through the doorway.

"Took them long enough," Lily whispered to James, coming back to bed from the perch she had taken, peeking through the slightly open door.

***

_A/N's_

_That was probably not the proposal you all wanted, but please do not shoot me! There's still more to the story, as Potter fans have probably deduced. In any case, I loved writing the babysitting scene and really wanted to throw the cuteness in there, because the time is drawing near for some very dark times._

_Thank you to __**amrawo**__, __**XangelXdevil, **__and __**Wolfy Pup **__for your feedback on the last chapter! My apologies to all of my readers for the delay in a new chapter, I was on spring break and was out of state for about a week, so I haven't been able to work on this story quite as much as I would have liked. Never fear! I shall not abandon you!_

_The next chapter, we will finally get a glimpse of a certain black-haired boy with Lily's eyes! Crossing my fingers for reviews between now and then! Cheers!_


	26. Chapter 26

**Chapter Twenty-Six**

"Sirius, Davie, get up -- Dumbledore's just been in touch, we need to go --"

"What?" Davie said, rubbing her eyes sleepily and sitting up in bed, wearing a pair of corduroys and a nightshirt to combat the unusual chill; she shook Sirius awake next to her before she got up, slipping into her shoes and awaiting an explanation from James, who was standing in the doorway alone; he spoke in a hushed voice, and Davie could already tell that he was doing so to try and keep this from Lily.

"Just the three of us - we'll leave the others with Lily," James said urgently. "It's Voldemort - in a town not far from here. Just -- come on."

Davie barely had time to roll up the sleeves of her flannel nightshirt as she and Sirius dashed off quietly after James out the door - James by broomstick and Sirius with Davie on his motorbike, they proceeded to take off, not even noticing a figure in the doorway upon their departure.

"Why did we leave Lily?" Davie yelled over the roar of the wind, just barely making herself audible to Sirius as she clung tightly to him from behind on the seat of the bike. He didn't speak, but Davie felt him shrug his shoulders, just before they spotted James on him broomstick starting to descend; Sirius followed sharply - they found themselves landing in the plaza of a wizarding town, though there was something very strange that they spotted, even only with the light of the Dark Mark in the sky.

In the middle of the plaza was a large statue that was unlike anything they had ever seen before - it was solid black, and glinted eerily. The statue was one of a man, with a large stone placard at his feet.

GELLERT GRINDELWALD  
_Purity Will Set Us Free_

The statue itself was intimidating, ominous - but it was not evident why the erection of a statue would warrant sending up the Dark Mark in the middle of the town. Davie was the first to notice the strange oblong shaped littered at the feet of the statue - in the dark, from a distance, they looked a bit like large rocks. Seeing no harm remaining in the situation, James began taking a few steps forward before Davie, whose eyes were squinted in the darkness, shot an arm out in front of him to stop him. "Draw your wands. _Merlin_ --"

Davie's breath hitched when just the right glint of the light made it evident to her what the shapes were -- they were bodies. The clothing they were made it clear that they were Muggles. Davie turned to Sirius, mostly to check that he'd drawn his wand, but before she could speak to him, a loud whirr and a violent black blur rushed past them, and the familiar hooded figures formed a line in front of them, facing them ominously.

"Don't move," one voice hissed - by now, it was of little consequence to differentiate between them. "The Dark Lord has been awaiting the opportunity to speak with you --"

"Go to _hell_," Davie spat venomously, her wand arm outstretched despite the fact that Sirius tried immediately to pull her back. "We don't want to speak to your _Lord_, you bag of --"

But, with a loud yelp, she was hoisted into the air by her ankle at the nonverbal spell of one of the Death Eaters - and a flash of eerie red light in their midst made it evident who had arrived. The figure that appeared compelled the rest of the hooded figures into silence - Sirius' jaw clench and he immediately raised his wand to reflexively protect Davie, but Davie, still dangling in mid-air, waved her wand and disarmed him. He looked up at her in a strange mixture of fury and fear and confusion.

"It is a _shame_," came the high-pitched, inhuman hiss that they recognized immediately; even as the blood was rushing to her head, Davie felt her skin prickle. "The Madduxes were an _exceptional_ bloodline - and now, because of your cheek," he hissed, stepping dangerously close to Davie with his wand pointed lazily at her, "It may very well one day be brought to an end. _Cruci--_"

"FLAGRATE!"

Everyone turned at the sudden appearance of another female voice - James looked equal parts relieved and horrified when he realized that Lily had somehow pinpointed their location and apparated after them - the plume of flame that issued from her wand spliced through the red beam of the Cruciatus curse, and at the same time, momentarily blinded the figures enough that Davie was released and fell the ground on her back; Sirius scrambled over to her to make sure she wasn't hurt. The long string of fire continued to swirl until it rebounded in its course and sliced through the midsection of the statue; the top half fell and shattered as it hit the ground like a block of black ice.

"Lily!" James yelled over the rumble, "Merlin's sake, you aren't supposed to--"

"_Silencio_." Voldemort hissed calmly at James, not even showing a single sign of being perturbed at having the Muggleborn witch stop his spell. Instead, he pulled down his hood and looked back and forth between the Potters with a cruel, animalistic smile.

"_Twice_, you have directly defied me," he continued to grin as he stalked towards them. "And twice, you have found your defiance fruitless in halting my rise. Understand _this_ --"

Voldemort tucked his wand away in a strange gesture, instead pointing a gnarled finger towards them - Sirius had an arm wrapped around Davie in a gesture that was not comforting, but one the was keeping her from lunging forward and doing something stupid again.

"You are not dead," Voldemort continued in a tone that appeared almost as though he was trying to hold back laughter, "because I have not yet found enough reason to kill you. You are no exceptional power - you are mere _nuisances _upon whom I do not wish to waste the effort in obliterating."

Voldemort lowered his arm and stared piercingly at Lily and James, a cruel and humorless smile curling on his lips. Then, he turned with dark sort of grandiosity to his followers, and with a single motion, singled them all to apparate away before there was time for any rebuttal.

"Haven't you figured out what happens when you bloody open your mouth at times like these? Every time, ever since we were in school!" Sirius said, his voiced mixed with fear and outrage as he held Davie by the shoulders, looking as though he were about to shake the petite young woman. "And you must be bloody mad, taking my wand when --"

"I can't believe you _left_ me!" Lily said shrilly, jabbing a finger into James' chest, though he voice shook in understandable anxiety following this encounter. "You think I'd be afraid of some bloody statue? You thought I couldn't --"

"Can you blame me, Lily?" James said loudly, sounding genuinely perturbed for one of the very few times ever. "Can you blame me for wanting to protect my _wife_? From _that_?!" James roared, jabbing a finger in the direction of the broken statue, though his gaze never left Lily's. "They want to _kill_ witches like you --"

"_Witches like me_!" Lily said shrilly, throwing her hands up and turning away from James. "You and Sirius really are best mates! Just alike, you are! I was the top of our class, and Davie's an Auror, and you're treating us like _children_ -- come on, Davie," Lily said, striding over and yanking her friend out of Sirius' grasp. "We need to -- we need to do something about these people," she said pulling Davie over to the bodies of the dead Muggles at the feet of the statue - most of them, as was now evident, had been killed by the Avada Kedavra; they were dead with their eyes wide open.

"I don't know how we're supposed to -- to sort through this," Davie said stiffly, kneeling next to the body of a woman and closing her eyes with the tips of her fingers. "There have to be at least two dozen - we couldn't possibly identify them all and bring them - Lily?"

A muffled sob next to her signaled Davie to stop speaking and look at her friend, who was crying profusely while looking at the corpses. Davie felt insensitive for not being quite as affected as her friend, and she paused next to Lily, reaching out and touching her friend's shoulder.

"We have to bring them home. Someone -- someone deserves to know what happened to them. They deserve to be able to -- to say goodbye," Lily stammered shakily, rubbing her eyes, and suddenly, Davie felt incredibly dull for not thinking that Lily may be reminded of her parents, who had never been found. Davie let out a breath, a pained expression crossing her face.

"We'll -- we'll do the best we can," Davie assured weakly, though she wasn't sure what they could do for a bunch of dead Muggles. Even if they could be identified, what could they do to explain the deaths without breaking laws about keeping the wizarding world a secret? "We'll try --"

"No. You won't." James said, and suddenly, he and Sirius strode up behind the two girls with their arms crossed, looking a bit like bodyguards in their posture. Both girls were momentarily speechless, and then, both turned to face them incredulously.

"You two are going to go home before anything worse can happen," Sirius said, raising his eyebrows as he spoke as though he were reprimanding a younger child. "And Prongs and I will handle --"

"You expect me to let _you_ handle it?" Lily said, standing up at facing both of the boys despite the fact that they were considerably larger than her. "You expect me to just go home and -- and --"

"I expect you to take care of yourself, if not for your own sake, then --"

"Then for whose, James?" Lily said shrilly, turning directly to her husband, her green eyes glinting angrily. "For yours? I'm supposed to give up everything I've been fighting for just for you, because I married _you_--"

"_FOR OUR CHILD!_"

The silence that fell over the four youth was thick and nearly suffocating as the words set in. Davie stood up from where she had been kneeling and placed a hand on Lily's shoulder, turning the red-haired girl gently to face her.

"Lily," she said gently, unsure of how to approach her friend in this delicate situation - indeed, Davie looked at her best friend as though she were liable to spontaneously combust. "You're -- you're --"

And suddenly, Lily's face reddened, as though she had suddenly become very embarrassed about something. She placed her hand on her forehead, sighing heavily, then looked back at Davie - it seemed Davie was the only one among them she could manage to look in the eye at the moment.

"I -- I suppose this _was_ stupid after all, then, wasn't it?" Lily asked hesitantly, to which Davie responded with a soft smile. "I just didn't want to be left behind while you were all out here, and Remus told me --"

"_Remus_ told you where we were, eh? Convenient." Sirius interrupted brusquely, and Davie looked at him on the verge of exasperation - in recent months, he had become so paranoid, so possessive, so watchful, especially when it came to Remus - as if the boy had given them a reason to revoke their faith in him. "Did Moony know about your condition --"

"Sirius, stop it," Davie said, stepping in front of him. "I don't know why you don't trust Remus, but --"

"You don't know _why_? When he's been conveniently absent or tardy whenever we've --"

"We're not going to talk about this now, Sirius," Davie said resolutely, her eyes narrowed. "Let's take care of them and go home. We ought to be happy --"

"Don't expect me to _forget_ that you came out here too, and you did something stupid --"

"I'm not going to argue with you right now, Sirius," Davie harrumphed. "If you want to --"

"Just lay off her for tonight, Padfoot," James said, clapping his friend on the shoulder. "She's right - let's take care of this and go back home." James stopped, and turned to Lily. "But you'll stop this, won't you? You'll listen to me once in a while, won't you?"

"I -- I will," Lily assented, wrapping her arms around her husband. "James -- I'm sorry. I oughtn't have come at all, you're right, but nothing happened."

"And nothing _will_ happen," James said, holding Lily out at arm's length and planting a kiss on her forehead. "I swear to you, Lily, the only way Voldemort will _ever _touch you is if he steps over my cold dead body --"

"James, don't _say_ --"

"-- and even then, I can't guarantee that my ghost will let him pass," James finished with a familiar, winning smirk. At this, Lily finally managed a weak laugh, which in turn garnered a small chuckle from Davie; the sound of Davie's laugh was finally enough to garner a smile from Sirius as well.

***

_July the Thirty-First, Nineteen Eighty_

"Everyone," James said, coming into the living room with a small bundle of receiving blankets in his arms - Davie and Sirius, Remus, Peter, Frank, Alice, and the McKinnons were all gathered in the room, waiting intently; Alice was already holding her infant son as well, whom they had named Neville. "I'd like you to meet my son -- _Harry James Potter_."

"Look at that _hair_," Davie said with a quiet laugh, immediately cooing over the small, sleeping baby boy. "He's going to take after his daddy and his godfather - the both of you are going to teach him to muss his hair up before the poor boy can even read. In fact, I'm sure Sirius is fixing to give him his first tub of pomade --"

"Don't be silly," Sirius chuckled, walking over as well and rubbing his hands over Davie's shoulders as though he were anxious about something as he was looking at Harry. "It's far too early for that, maybe --"

"How's Lily?" Davie chirped excitedly, interrupting Sirius by giving him a playful swat on his arm. "I thought you'd need to pry Harry out of her arms just to bring him out to see us."

"She's sleeping, that's the only way I got her to put him down," James said with a chuckle, but with the quiet volume of his voice, Davie didn't even need to wait for the shift in his tone to know that there was something he had to say to her.

"You know, I don't see why you and Sirius couldn't be godparents as a pair," James said gently, though they had previously had a very delicate conversation on the subject. "I mean, I know what you said, but if we're being impartial, I'd choose you to be an example for my son over Sirius -- no offense, Pad foot --"

"None taken --"

"_James_," Davie interrupted carefully, taking a glance around at everyone in the room before continuing. "I told you -- it's not that I don't want to. I'll always be here for you and for Harry and for Lily, in every way I can, but -- Sirius can tell you how reckless I am. If anything happens to me over the course of all this, well," Davie cleared her throat, scratching the back of her neck. "It'd be easier to not have to explain to him that his godmum's kicked the bucket --"

"Don't say things like --"

"I'm just being careful, Sirius - you know better than anyone I can't help myself when I get reckless," Davie said, trying to keep her expression even - this was a _happy_ day and she didn't want an argument to taint it in any way. "Besides! _You're_ Harry's godfather, and I'm your fiancee, I think that's good enough - heaven knows I'll be doing more of the babysitting anyway. You might mistake him for a Quaffle."

**

_A/N's_

_Harry's here! Alright, so he's a newborn and can't talk much, but still - that means the story is progressing! It also means that even sadder times are ahead though, so I hope everyone is prepared. Enjoy everyone in their twenties while you can as well, because the time jump is coming!_

_Thank you to my new readers and subscribers: __**kitcool**__, __**passingwhisper**__, __**mika599**__, __**lilmisspurplesunshinee**__, __**Hikari no Hoshi, **__and __**Ithilya**__, and, especially to __**kitcool**__, __**Ithilya**__, and to __**dancingqueensillystring**__ (who has been reviewing since near the beginning) for their positive feedback! Always makes my week brighter! I've been having a stressful time in real life, so getting feedback from my readers always puts a smile on my face._

_The next chapter, we're heading for same very big changes, and I'm hoping to try and update more often, as school is slowly letting up and giving more time to write. Until then, cheers!_


	27. Chapter 27

**Chapter Twenty Seven**

_Early April, Nineteen Hundred Eighty-One_

"Shush, Harry," Davie said, bouncing the little boy on her knee - she had been left at home to watch Harry while Lily, James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter all reported to Dumbledore on an urgent Floo message that the Order's assistance was required. It was nearly two in the morning, and they still hadn't returned - while Davie was aware that staying home and watching Harry was important, she also maintained that they very well could have allowed someone else to do it. She lamented with a sort of harrumph that lately, she had been left out, after having been injured with a particularly nasty curse in their last encounter, and even now hadn't completely recovered.

"Alright, there, little man," Davie sighed, reaching over to the nearby table and snatching up Harry's bottle, laying him on the mattress next to her. He was starting to get fussy from missing his mother, and when he started fussing, he was difficult to appease. "Your mum and dad will be home soon, don't --"

Harry let out a loud, elated squeal when the bedroom door burst open and Lily, James, and Sirius stood in the dimly lit doorway. Lily immediately gave an inexplicable sob and rushed over, taking her son into her arms as though she had been afraid of never seeing him again.

"Oh, _Harry_," Lily said, hugging her son tightly and placing a kiss in his hair; little Harry squealed in elation at having his mother finally get home, unaware of whatever was bothering her. "Harry, I'm so sorry - I'm sorry, you don't deserve _any_ of this! If your father and I had just laid low -- if I'd just stopped when Sirius suggested I leave the Order --"

"Would _someone _tell me what's happening?" Davie huffed, her voice catching in her throat in apprehension; Lily Potter never reacted this way unless something was indeed very wrong. "I thought you were just --"

"We've just spoken with Dumbledore - you could have come but I didn't want to wake you," Sirius said stiffly, sounding far too adult and authoritative for Davie's liking. This tone from him meant that he was trying to protect her from something. "We need to tell you--"

"We can't stay here anymore, Davie," James said quickly, as prepared as he could be for the shocked expression on her face. "You've been wonderful to us all, but -- something's happened. A woman was applying for the Divination position with Dumbledore last night. She had a vision --"

"A vision!" Davie scoffed, running a hand through her sleep-tousled hair and looking at her friends in disbelief. "That's ridiculous --"

"Voldemort doesn't think it is," Lily said in a choked voice, still holding Harry tightly and cradling him close. "He -- he wants to kill Harry."

"We're going into hiding," James said quietly. "We can't tell anyone where except -- well, Sirius is going to be our Secret Keeper. We have to leave tomorrow."

"I understand," Davie nodded gravely, letting out a deep breath. "Lily -- Lily, please don't panic. Go get some rest. We'll help you get ready in the morning." And when the Potters had cleared from the room, Sirius, sat on the bed next to Davie, holding his head tiredly in his hands. They were all so young yet, and they had already gotten themselves into this.

"Sirius," Davie said quietly, placing her hands gently on his shoulders. "Sirius, what --"

"They shouldn't have chosen me," Sirius said throatily. "Don't you think it's too obvious?"

"Well, then why hasn't anyone asked Remus?"

"Davie -- don't you think it's suspicious that whenever we have an encounter, he's always lagging a convenient distance behind?" Sirius said, looking up at his fiancee with an expression on his face that oozed distrust. "I don't have any faith in him anymore." Davie remained silence, brow furrowing in concern. "Oh, don't look at me like --"

"How did Voldemort know?" Davie asked, her eyes narrowed hesitantly. "Who told him about the prophecy?"

Sirius' face move into a snarl before the words could even leave his lips, and that snarl in and of itself seemed to turn a lightswitch on in Davie's head. "He had a spy. And you won't need more than one guess who it was -- who else wants James dead that badly?"

Davie's breath hitched in her throat, and her face contorted in anger and confusion. It had been _Snape_ who betrayed them - Snape, whom she had always believed had the ability to be a good person, whom she had had defended, whom she had spared from the full extent of her anger because a part of her still believed in giving him a chance.

"He -- no," Davie said, her forehead wrinkling even further as she tried to make sense of the situation. "It doesn't -- how did Dumbledore find out?"

"It appears Snape grew a modicum of a conscience -- not before he found a way of ruining James' life," Sirius snarled, and the darkness of his expression was enough to instill a strange sense of fear even in Davie. "He's supposedly gone turncoat on Voldemort, but I don't trust him --"

"Then who _do_ you trust?" Davie interrupted, crossing her arms at hearing the phrase for the umpteenth time in what was only really a matter of weeks.

"You. James." Sirius said simply, looking straight ahead. "I'm not sure if there's anyone else."

Davie let out a sigh - Sirius was never one to let on that he was affected by what they were going through, but the changes he had undergone even just since they left Hogwarts were more than obvious. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders, nestling into the side of his neck.

"It'll all be over one day soon," Davie said, trying to sound assured, though lately it seemed that they were going farther and farther away from the prospect of defeating Voldemort. "And we'll have the rest of our lives ahead of us, Sirius."

"You don't really believe that," Sirius said stiffly - and Davie gave a small sigh at how well he was able to read her after knowing her for so many years. "I don't think any of us do."

Davie couldn't respond - she had always been the hopeful one, the one who thought they could get by on sheer will and hardheadedness, no matter the challenge. Two years ago, she would hardly have been able to understand Sirius' attitude, would have regarded it as sheer cynicism, but now, he was beginning to sound right.

The first few weeks of the Potters being in hiding were difficult - she had convinced Sirius to let her know where Lily and James were living, but this turned out to only make it worse, as none of them were permitted to visit, for fear of being caught. It was even harder for Davie to read Lily's letters and the undertone of panic that underlay every single one. Even happy stories of Harry's first steps, his first words - every story was laced with a sort of unsureness whether or not they would live to see the next milestone, and while Davie was obliged to encourage Lily that everything would be okay, every day that passed caused her heart to sink deeper and deeper into hopelessness.

***

_October the Twenty-Ninth, Nineteen Hundred Eighty-One_

Sixth months, the Potters had been in hiding - to the extent of Davie's knowledge, Sirius was their Secret Keeper, as he had never told her anything to the contrary. Remus and Peter had moved out of the Maddux house as tensions began to rise, and outside of missions for the Order, Sirius could stand to do little else besides write to Lily and James, and spend time with Davie.

Davie, as it turned out ,was taking the extended separation from her best friends hard as well - for a good part of her life before leaving Hogwarts, Davie did little without Lily's accompaniment, Lily's approval. She waited for Lily to go first, because Lily always knew better - even after Auror training, the belief remained in Davie's mind that Lily knew better.

Davie could hardly stand that the only contact she had with Lily now was through letters; there was no constant contact, no Floo Network -- Davie may not have been the one in hiding, but the feeling of isolation settled on her as well. Lily wasn't here, and Sirius was distant despite the fact that they were in the same house.

Dinners, it seemed, were not particularly enjoyable or romantic at all - Sirius seemed to chomp through his food quickly, and dote over Davie as though she would be injured or otherwise harmed throughout the course of any given day.

Today, however, an owl flew through the window to deliver the evening edition of the Daily Prophet, and Sirius snatched it up first, a strange expression crossing his face.

"D'you see?" he asked stiffly, handing it over to Davie, who hesitated before taking it.

"Velingrad - that's where I went to Auror training, it's tiny, what's it doing in the papers?" Davie said, glancing at the headline. "A Death Eater Attack -- but Bulgaria's teeming with Voldemort's sympathizers, why would they--"

Davie turned to where the story continued inside the paper and her jaw dropped unabashedly as her eyes set on a familiar face gracing the page.

"Romnic?" Davie said breathlessly, eyes scanning over the story, and she felt a familiar lump rise in her throat. "He's under the Imperius -"

"This came for you this morning. You were sleeping," Sirius said, opening a drawer and holding out a piece of parchment upon which the seal had already been broken, though Davie could still recognize it as belonging to the Bulgarian ministry. "I couldn't help myself. Sorry."

He clearly was _not _sorry for opening the letter, but Davie did not have the heart to blame him for letting his curiosity, his _suspicion_, get the better of him.

Davie slowly took the letter from his hands and read it as well - it was a call for assistance from the Bulgarian ministry, which still took an official stance against Voldemort despite the sentiments of most of the wizards in the area.

"They - they want help from Britain's Aurors. They're a bit short, understandably," Davie said shakily. "They need it, especially if they're dealing with people under the Imperius. And --"

"And Romnic Digby could be one of them," Sirius finished for her, regardless of whether or not it was truly what she was going to say. "You should go." Davie's expression was incredulous. "I'm not trying to trick you, Davie," Sirius said, reaching across the table and touching Davie's hand, though the vein starting to tense in his neck made it evident that this was difficult for him to say. "But if anything happens to you, I swear, I'll go to Azkaban for killing someone --"

"That's not funny," Davie huffed, standing up and walking around the table to stand behind him. "But -- thank you. For letting me do this, I mean." She sighed, starting to move away from the table and towards the stairs. "They need me as soon as possible --"

"They've waited all day," Sirius said, his hand jetting out to take Davie by the wrist; his expression was insistent, and at the same time, pleading. He tugged her insistently back towards him, coaxing her so that she was standing in front of him. He placed his hands on her waist, looking up at her with still the same look on his face. "You say you're going there to help them - but we both know you'd refuse if not for Romnic's picture in the paper."

"Sirius --"

"Just give me tonight," Sirius persisted, and the tips of his fingers tightened their hold into Davie's waist in a gentle gesture of begging. "Just tonight, and tomorrow you can go."

And Davie agreed - agreed to at least this night with Sirius. Wordlessly, she leaned forward and pressed her lips to his, and she was met with a sort of desperation and exhilaration that he hadn't given in a long time. Locked in their embrace, it became evident that both were still seeking the sort of thrill and happiness that they had once taken for granted. Sirius wrapped his arms tightly around her waist, and Davie's hands moved to undo the buttons of his shirt - he had asked for tonight to his, to be _theirs_, a cool autumn night just before Halloween…

***

_A/N's _

…_and I think we all know what happens this Halloween. I'm not going to write a scene of that night, and the next chapter will take place afterwards. It made me really sad that this was the last I'd be able to write of Lily and James. But we still have Sirius and Davie to take care of, and they have a bit of a way to go before the end of their story._

_Thank you to __**Lumihiutale89**__, __**Wateranddarkness66**__, __**Ithilya **__(another loyal reader/reviewer) and of course, __**dancingqueensillystring**__. I love all of the positive feedback, it encourages me to keep working!_

_Having another bumpy couple of weeks at school so it might be a bit of a delay before my next update, but for that chapter, expect to see the aftermath of the Potters' death. Sorry to leave everyone on a sad note, but until then, cheers!_


	28. Chapter 28

**Chapter Twenty-Eight**

_November the Second, Nineteen Hundred Eighty-One_

"_Where is he_?!"

Davie stormed off of the rowboat that had transported her across the choppy seas to the isle of Azkaban Prison, where Advisor to the Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, was waiting to meet her.

The instant Davie had set foot in Bulgaria, a security alert was raised, forbidding travel in and out of the country - the letter had been a fake, though Alice Longbottom had received one and answered as well. There had been no call for aid from the Bulgarian ministry - the sighting of Romnic Digby seemed to have been a ruse. Davie had been sulking and complaining to Alice in a Bulgarian hostel for more than entire day before hearing the news about Lily and James being murdered in their home in Godric's Hollow, and Harry had been taken elsewhere for safekeeping. The Potters' hiding place had been revealed and as everyone understood, Sirius was the only one who could have betrayed them. Sirius killed Peter Pettigrew - the idea of Sirius killing them, when just nights before, they had been together, and he'd expressed his hatred for all of this, for the pain his friends were being put through, was ludicrous in Davie's mind.

"Let me _pass_!" Davie yelled, her wand drawn as she stormed past Fudge and into the tall wooden doors of the prison, into a throng of Dementors; Davie's expression was wild and infuriated as she raised her wand. "_Expecto --_"

"Miss Maddux." Fudge said, reaching out and forcibly lowering Davie's wand arm with his hand, and she immediately turned to face him. "Do not manhandle our guards. I understand that you were very close to the Potters, and to Mister Black. I know this must be difficult for you --"

"_Difficult_!" Davie scoffed shrilly. "Don't any of you understand? What happened to a trial? Veritaserum would solve everything! This isn't possible --"

"All roads lead to the same destination - Veritaserum is rare, and costly. I am not going to waste Ministry resources to prove what we already _know_. The Potters are _dead_. Peter Pettigrew is _dead_." Fudge said, his voice blunt and cold, sending a sensation akin to being bludgeoned in the stomach with an ice pick through Davie's body. "Someone's responsible for it - who else would you accuse?"

Davie had nothing to say - no answer. And it hit her that there was no Lily to help her find it. Davie's hands shook, and she felt tears well up behind her eyes.

"I want to see him," Davie said shakily. "I don't care what any of you say he did - I want to see him. Ministry privilege," she stated through gritted teeth, her hand curling around her wand unconsciously - Davie consciously had to stop herself from doing something hasty, as Sirius was now unable to do it for her. "I'm an Auror. You're obliged to let me through."

For a moment, Davie and Fudge seemed to stare one another down - a tiny young woman, a newly-pledged Auror, locking eyes with the right-hand man to the Minister of Magic. But something in Davie's expression - the wildness and the desperation, it must have been - could not be turned away. Fudge raised his wand, and the dozen or so magical locks on a nearby door clicked and slid and turned apart, allowing the doors to open just enough for a person to squeeze through. Not glancing back or giving any thanks, Davie walked through into the cell; the doors shut behind her.

"Sirius!" Davie said, seeing him sitting in middle of the floor, staring up at the ceiling - he had only been here two days, and it seemed that the Dementors were already taking their toll on his. He looked haggard as though he hadn't sleep at all since arriving. He seemed not to have eaten. He was blank and sullen, but underneath it all, he was still her Sirius. She knelt down next to him, placing her hands on his shoulders and shaking him slightly.

"Please tell me it wasn't you!" Davie pleaded, though Sirius only stared blankly at her, lips slightly parted as though he were starting to have trouble breathing. "Sirius, _please_! You didn't betray them, you didn't kill Peter! _Lily and James, Sirius!_"

The last phrase seemed to set something off in Sirius, as for a moment, a glint of coherence appeared in his eyes; his gaze snapped up to meet Davie's, and suddenly, he had grabbed her tightly by the shoulders, his eyes boring into hers as though even in this state of madness, there was something he wanted desperately for her to understand.

"_LILY AND JAMES, SIRIUS!_" he repeated, his voice hoarse from disuse, and Davie shook at the mere sound of it. Why had he chosen to repeat those words? Davie hadn't heard witness accounts of the scene of Peter's death, she didn't know the way hearing Peter's words repeated struck a cord with him. "It was _him_! You knew - you _knew_ not to believe him! _PETER --_"

"You didn't kill him?" Davie asked, groping desperately for an answer -- what had she known? What was Sirius trying to tell her? "Sirius - Sirius, _come on_! I need you to tell me - I need you to make sense or I can't help you," she pleaded, tears beginning to stream down her cheeks. "I need you to tell me -"

"PETER!" he barked hoarsely, eyes wide, though it seemed to take effort, as his eyes were sunken and swollen from the conditions of the prison. "Wormtail --"

"Sirius, I know --"

"_YES!_" Sirius said, giving Davie's shoulders another frantic shake. "You know! You told me --"

"Sirius, you're not making any sense!" Davie said, shaking herself free from his grasp and standing in front of him, staring at him in complete incredulity. "I'm going to find out what happened -- if you can't tell me, I'll find it. I'll get you out - but I can't --

Davie's voice cracked as the tears began flowing more quickly. She could no longer look at him like this - she let out a muffled sob and turned back towards the door, banging on it with her fist to be opened.

When she returned to her home, where she'd last seen Sirius before all this, the feeling of complete and utter loneliness sank in. Voldemort seemed to be defeated. Harry was still alive. But to what end had everything been done? James, Lily, and Peter were dead. Sirius was in prison. And for the first time in a long time, Davie was alone in her family home, a sort of loneliness she hadn't even felt right after her parents had died. She couldn't go upstairs to the study, or the bedrooms - she felt trapped in her own house. She couldn't move, she couldn't look at the pictures of her family and friends without feeling as if she were being suffocated by their absence.

It was late in the evening, and Davie sat on a sofa, staring into a fireplace with no fire lit, as though it would suddenly roar to life, and one of the people she cared about might appear out of nowhere. No one came.

Davie found herself crying without restraint - if she hadn't gone to Bulgaria, if she'd just stayed with Sirius, maybe she would have been able to stop him from whatever had happened. She couldn't wrap her mind around any of it, but in her mind and in her heart, she truly believed that Sirius should not have been in Azkaban, and certainly did not deserve to be there alone.

"_OPEN THE DOOR, MADDUX!"_

Davie's head snapped up as a loud voice arose from outside, accompanied by loud banging on the door - and Davie recognized the voice immediately. She wiped her eyes furiously and strode over to the door, wand already drawn before even opening it, and as she yanked the wooden door open so forcefully that

its old hinges gave a wretched squeak, she laid eyes on Severus Snape for the first time in a very long time.

Snape had never shown himself to anyone in the Order after the news of the prophecy broke, and for good reason. Davie's fury at him was still fresh, still painful, like a wound being licked by salt water at the shore of the sea.

"I'll _kill_ you!" she said, raising her wand and pointing it at his chest with a sharp jab. "How _dare_ you show your face here, how _dare_ --"

"I tried to save Potter's life --"

"Which _one_?" Davie hissed spitefully, her eyes narrowed and, for the first time in all the years Severus had known this scrawny, spineless girl, filled with the desire to cause hurt. "James? Harry?" she asked, then, after a pause, she added with a sneer, "_Lily _Potter, Severus? Either way, you failed --"

Snape winced visibly. "Don't _ever_ --"

"You destroyed her life," Davie hissed angrily. "You destroyed the life she would have wanted to give her family by betraying her. _You killed her --_"

Now, Severus winced as though he had been burned, and his eyes narrowed in response - every time he saw Davie, her hatred for him seemed to grow tenfold , and yet, he continued to come back because now she was the only tangible link to Lily that remained. "The _letter _--"

"When have you ever deserved her? She _never saw it_," Davie hissed, and immediately, she was met with Snape's wand pointing at her own chest as well, locking them in a stalemate, both bearing wild, infuriated expressions full of pain.

"Do it," Davie snarled. "Go ahead, kill Lily's best friend just like you killed her --"

"I did _not --" _Snape hissed in a choked voice. "I would've thought you'd be in Azkaban, fawning over your murderer of a boyfriend. Never speak as if you understand, you selfish, _worthless _--"

"Selfish!" Davie mocked shrilly, and unconsciously she sent a flurry of yellow sparks crackling from the tip of her wand that caused Snape to leap backwards in fear that she might cast one of the hexes at which she had become so gifted. "I may be a lot of things, but -- I gave up having a godson, a husband -- I gave up _everything_ because of _this_!" Davie cried, her free hand jetting out and clasping itself around Snape's other forearm, where she knew the Dark Mark would still lie. "I gave it up so no one would be hurt if I died, so everyone could start over -- but now, none of them can because of _you._ It's all been for nothing, so do not _ever_ call me selfish, Snape. Not _you_."

For a moment, they simply stood there with their wands drawn on one another, with wavering hands and pained expressions, and a part of Davie validated Severus' pain - whatever had transpired, he had loved Lily, and was entitled to that pain, no matter how evil Davie thought he was, no matter how much she could not help but loathe him. They had nearly been friends once, a strange sort of friendship that had only occurred because of voids that could not otherwise be filled.

"Why did you come?" Davie asked in a hoarse voice, her eyes still narrowed, though her outstretched wand arm relaxed slightly. "To rub in the fact that I've lost _everything_ --"

"I came," Severus interrupted, "because I've been acquainted with you long enough to know that you're prone to doing bloody stupid things, and I don't need it on my conscience --"

"Oh, heavens, no -- Merlin forbid I make _you_ feel any worse," Davie said darkly, lowering her wand slowly. "You think I can't read you? The only reason you tolerated me at all was because I'm -- because I _was_ Lily's best friend," Davie said, changing the tense to reflect Lily's absence among them now. "That's the only reason you're here now."

"You're going to ask about her son," Severus said stiffly, lowering his wand as well and not so much as acknowledging her statement. "You're going to -"

"Remus wrote me. You're too late to play the hero, you have no leverage over me," Davie hissed. "And I know I can't see him. I can't go near him - I know I have to stand down, knowing my best friend's son was handed off to that horrible Muggle woman. I know what Petunia's like --"

"As do I." Severus nodded. "But he's safe there --"

"For _your _sake, he better be." Davie growled. "If one day I found out they're not being good to him, you'll be the one I come after. This is _your_ fault --"

"I'm not the one who's in Azkaban for murder."

Davie's nostrils flared unprettily, and her hand clenched around her wand at the statement. "Sirius isn't a murderer," Davie said in an angrily yet at the same time frail tone. "I don't know what happened - I don't know how to prove it, but I will. Even if I need to give my life for it, I will --"

"You're being stupid," Snape said coldly - but beneath the coldness was a strange motive that Davie could sense, but not decipher. It made no sense why he would bother correcting her, or why he did not simply allow her to throw her life away to help Sirius.

Snape's intentions were not the best or the purest - he only did this because of the way perceived Davie, still the same idealistic child she had always been. Despite the weariness and paleness of her face that could only have been attained through trials such as those the Order had been through, Snape saw her as the same child who thought the world could be changed through sheer will. This was the reason Lily had developed such a deep friendship with her. His conscience could not allow Lily's best friend to do this to herself, to become another casualty of his selfishness and blind loyalty to Voldemort.

"I want you to leave," she said stonily. "I don't care how many times you switch sides. I don't care _why_ - here onward, you will _always_ be my enemy, Snape," she finished, stepping back into her house and slamming the door behind her.

Severus Snape didn't matter. Being an Auror didn't matter. Dumbledore and Fudge and Hogwarts and the Ministry didn't matter. Nothing mattered except trying to find a way to prove Sirius innocent, to get him out, to find the truth.

But days turn to weeks, to months -- and as many times as Davie roved the street where Peter Pettigrew and those Muggles had died, she could find nothing. She spent sleepless nights trolling through every newspaper, magical or otherwise, trying to find any modicum of evidence that would get Sirius free. Every week she used her position as an Auror to edge into visits in Azkaban more regularly than should have been allowed. Even though Sirius grew more and more frantic, more and more unstable, she persisted. There were times when he seemed not to even recognize her, and yet she still continued to promise him she'd find a way to find out what had happened, and to get him out.

Everyone worried about the girl - Remus checked on her from time to time, the Weasleys and their growing clan paid her the occasional visit, but apart from a brief friendly embrace and the usual pleasantries, they hardly managed to get much out of her. Even Severus Snape, who by this point had started actively working at Hogwarts, under Dumbledore's constant supervision, lurked by the Maddux home on occasion, though he never darkened the doorstep to speak so much as a word to Davie.

Things continued this way for a year - a year of nothing but disappointment and heartbreak, until one day, when Davie arrived in the rowboat at the threshold of Azkaban, passing through the throng of dementors, she had decided on something more drastic. More grave.

"Hullo, miss." Sirius said in a hoarse, almost drunken-sounding chuckle, and Davie could feel the familiar sensation of her heart shattering the instant she walked through the doors. "I find it terribly isolated in this place. You wouldn't have a paper I could read, would you?"

"No." Davie said stiffly - and suddenly, the words began to trickle out of Davie's mouth uncontrollably. "Sirius - I can't stand seeing you like this anymore. I've tried a whole year, and I can't find anyway to help you - so if I can't find a way to be with you out _there_," Davie said quietly, looking up at the tiny window of his cell. "Then - then I'll find another way to be with you--"

Davie choked back a sob, shaking her head and looking away. She reached into the pocket of her traveling cloak and pulled out a small, shining object - the snowflake necklace Sirius had given her during their sixth year. Grabbing him by the wrist, she shoved it into his hand shakily. He held it in his palm, but his expression remained blank - not a flash of recognition, or emotion. Davie let out a small, tearful laugh.

"The one good thing about you being like this," Davie said breathlessly, backing away towards the door, "is that this time, you can't stop me from what I'm about to do. I know you would have."

Davie stared at Sirius for a few seconds, took in every line on his face, before leaving as quickly as she could, not caring if she walked past the dementors. At the moment, it felt that there was very little joy or hope they could take from - even the hooded figures seemed to turn away from her, sensing little to feed from.

As she left, she did not see Sirius tuck the small silver chain into his pocket, a tear sliding down his face. All Davie knew was that she had a plan to be with Sirius again. It was nonsensical. It was dangerous. She did not know if it would work, but she also did not expect to be stopped.

***

_A/N's_

_Sorry everyone for the delay - I've been having internet troubles as of late, plus another round of exams, so it's been a hectic time. Plus, this was a tough chapter, the last chapter before the big time jump - the next chapter skips ahead to just before Order of the Phoenix._

_Thanks to __**silverfox8080**__, __**Risiska**__, and __**wildgirl1991**__ for subscribing/favoriting. Also thanks to __**Wateranddarkness666**__ for reviewing! I'll keep this note short and sweet and try to get back to work tweaking the next chapters. For now, cheers!_


	29. Chapter 29

"_Both of them speak of something that is gone:_

…_Whither is fled the visionary gleam?_

_Where is it now, the glory and the dream?"_

- from "Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood", William Wordsworth

**Chapter Twenty Nine**

_July the Twelfth, Nineteen Hundred Ninety-Five_

To say that Sirius Black loathed the house at Grimmauld Place was an understatement. Even if he were paid, he would rather have had his stomach ripped out by a raging Hungarian Horntail than to be trapped inside these walls again, and yet here he was, in the very home he had been desperate to get away from. He would never go so far as to say it was as bad as Azkaban - but it was rather close.

As much as he tried to keep busy here, the only thing that gave him any significant amount of relief was fire whiskey and mulled mead - often at inappropriate morning hours, at the realization the he had absolutely nothing better to do. Hence, when he was sitting in his room and overheard the rest of the members of the Order of the Phoenix discussing what seemed to be a very dangerous, very important mission, he had no hesitation in stepping out into the living room and throwing his hat into the metaphorical ring.

"What are we all looking at me strange for?" Sirius guffawed as he took a seat next to Remus Lupin on a sofa, propping his Wellington-clad feet unceremoniously onto the table - when he entered the room, everyone seemed to have fallen into an awkward silence. Everyone glanced at one another uncomfortably, except for Severus Snape, who gave Sirius a nasty grin.

"We all know how hot-headed you are, Black," he said coolly, crossing his arms. "And I don't believe this particular assignment is -- _suitable_ for your temperament."

"A handful of Aurors have been kidnapped and are being held hostage," Remus interrupted in order to avoid a fiasco of a confrontation between Sirius and Severus - even after so many years, the animosity was still as potent as ever. "We aren't sure if any of them are still alive, but to date, no remains have been found and --"

"Why would I lose my temper over a bunch of Aurors who probably helped keep me in Azkaban to begin with?" Sirius snorted derisively, shaking his head. "Frankly, if I wasn't itching to get out of here I couldn't give a --"

"They were some of our Aurors, at a satellite outpost in Bulgaria. They've been there for the past ten or eleven years," Molly Weasley added in a gentle, knowing tone. Like a hound called by his master, Sirius stiffened, bristled, and turned quickly to Molly.

"Have any of them been identified? The missing Aurors?" Sirius asked, lips tight against his teeth as he leaned across the table. Everyone shook their heads in response. His nostrils flared furiously. "And no one told me before --"

"I think," Tonks piped in, still in a surprisingly chipper tone, "that they _thought_ you'd muck everything up if you came along, because all you'd care about is finding your girlfriend --"

"_Tonks!_"

"Shut up!"

"But it's true!" Tonks retorted shrilly, holding her hands up defensively at the sudden outcry at her incredibly blunt statement.

"I don't care if it's true," Remus chided pointedly. "We've all been trying to --"

"_ENOUGH!_" Sirius bellowed, effectively silencing everyone as he slammed a fist onto the wooden table like a judge's gavel. He cleared his throat, and feigned a cool smile, an almost convincing imitation of himself in his youth.

Ever since Sirius had been freed and rejoined the ranks of the Order, he had asked everyone what had become of Davina Maddux - all anyone was able to tell them was that about a year after Sirius was put in Azkaban, a year of trying to convince everyone that Sirius was innocent, Davie had given up and asked to be sent to Bulgaria to get away. Remus, in particular seemed rather shifty and guilty - all he cared to explain was that his last conversation with Davie had been less than pleasant, and she had never replied to any of his letters attempting to make amends - indeed, she made contact with no one, and no one could blame her after the way they had treated her like she was insane. For all any of them knew, she had disappeared.

Sirius leaned forward onto the table coolly, glad to have the entire room as his captive audience. It felt quite natural, actually. "You all ought to know I'm always ready and willing for a field trip - when do we leave?"

"You can't be seen outside of the house, you ignoramus --"

"Who asked you?" Sirius snarled again, eyes narrowed in Snape's direction, feeling another familiar sensation boiling to the surface, an anger and resentment at Snape's interference with things - with _people _that Sirius wanted him to be completely detached from.

"Sirius," Arthur Weasley said carefully, though he flinched quite visibly when Sirius' head practically snapped itself off his neck to turn in his direction. "You can't leave Headquarters. I know you mean well but it may endanger --"

"Alright. S'fine." Sirius snarled, eyes narrowing as he slammed a fist on the table and stood up, staring at everyone in the room as though they'd just betrayed him - he spared a very particularly scathing glance for Severus Snape. Had things changed so much in fourteen years that suddenly, everyone sided with _Snivellus_ over him? That even Moony refused to speak up for him? He stormed back to his room, not bothering to acknowledge the nasty grin on Snape's face at defeating him yet again.

Sirius had to keep himself from ripping the wallpaper from his walls in his fury when he heard the loud cracking noises that could only mean that the group had apparated away without him. Indeed, Sirius only managed to calm himself when he was joined by Buckbeak striding into the room from the adjacent quarters, his sharp talons scratching on the ground - Sirius managed to bow as he was obliged to out of respect, and the restraint the action required allowed him a small amount of cooling-off.

"Good Buckbeak," Sirius said gruffly, reaching out to pet the hippogriff firmly after he had received a reciprocal bow. "At least someone in this bloody house is loyal."

Sirius had in recent years acquired, among other things, the ability to brood in complete silence for long periods of time, and he did precisely that until he heard a loud crackling noise - not the sound of apparition, but of a message coming in by Floo. That was the good thing about this old house, Sirius thought to himself. The walls were so old and thin, at the very least, the rest of the Order was unable to hide things from him. The next sound he heard was the click of Molly Weasley's shoes across the hard wood floor to answer.

"Arthur!" she said loudly, evidently surprised at being contacted in this way. "Arthur, where are you?"

"Bulgaria, as planned," Arthur's voice came over the crackling fire. "The mansion was abandoned before we arrived, but it isn't a pretty sight. It was practically in ruins. We have one survivor --"

Sirius rose from where he'd been sitting and moved to the door to eavesdrop, almost unconsciously.

"--we're returning with her now. Be ready to have a look at her."

_Her_. At the mention of the others' return, Sirius scrambled carelessly from his quarters, just in time to see Arthur Weasley return, followed immediately by Remus, though neither of them had in tow the aforementioned survivor - had he been hearing things?

At that moment, as if in response to his silent question, Severus Snape appeared in the room next, bearing an unconscious human form in his arms, though the figure was covered by his traveling cloak. Sirius rushed forward as Snape placed the body in the closest armchair in the living room. Remus leaned over and brushed the hair out of the figure's face.

It was most definitely a woman - a petite, dark-haired woman who looked hardly any older than thirty years old. Her hair was caked with dirt and dried blood which probably came from the wound visible on her scalp. Her face was pale, emaciated, almost grotesquely sickly - and yet somehow absolutely unmistakable.

"Davie," Sirius said in a choked voice, causing everyone to note his presence, and the room became incredibly still, unsure of whether to restrain him, or to let him near her. A vein at the side of his neck throbbed visibly at the thought of the fact that Severus Snape had been the one to find her when she needed to be saved - the unfairness was excruciating, that Snivellus had done what in their youth Davie had never allowed Sirius to do. Sirius scrambled over, nearly knocking a table out of the way in the process. He knelt next to the unconscious woman - the movements of her chest caused by her breathing were almost intangible; for a moment, Sirius was not sure she was breathing at all. "Is she -- bloody hell, if you had let me -- I thought you were going to --"

"She's alive, Padfoot," Remus explained, pulling Sirius backwards in order to try and talk sense into the man who look almost animal-like in his desperation for Davie to awaken. "But she's been tortured, badly -- there's no way of telling for how long unless she wakes up."

"_Until_ she wakes up," Sirius corrected without pause, not able to take his gaze from her. "Remus, don't bloody make it sound like she won't --"

"Look at the poor thing," Molly Weasley interrupted dotingly, clucking her tongue reproachfully in wordless reprimanding for Sirius' reaction. "You all remember how skinny she got when her parents died. Merlin's sake, she's ten times worse. We need to bring her to St. Mungo's --"

"She's staying _here_," Sirius said, jabbing a finger downwards forcefully. "She's in _my_ home and I refuse to allow her to be put in that -- that --"

"Are you a Healer, Black?" Snape snarled. "You don't even --"

"We can't trust anyone else with her," Sirius retorted, his attention turning onto Snape once more. "D'you think she's any safer in St. Mungo's? I think I know --"

"You hardly know how to bathe yourself, you imbecile --"

"I'll _kill_ you," Sirius snarled, pulling his wand from the pocket of his coat. Snape had calmly just done the same when a small, piteous groan rose from the maroon chaise.

"Where am I?" came the almost inaudible female voice - she frailly lifted her hand to shield her still-shut eyes from the light, after having been in the dark for so long. When she moved, her paleness became even more evident; there was hardly any difference between her lips and her skin. The only clear bits of color were livid bruises on her face and arms. After an audible gasp, Molly left to the kitchen to fetch the supplies to tend to the woman.

"Where am I?" Davie repeated, her eyes still shut - the pain in her head throbbed at the sudden exposure to light. The first thought that came to mind was not of being rescued, but of being taken somewhere else for further torture. "Let me go --" Davie groaned hoarsely. "Let me --"

"Davie," Remus said quietly, raising his hand in front of Sirius to silence him for the time being. "You're back in London - you're with the Order -"

"The _Order_," Davie said breathlessly, her forehead wrinkling in recognition. "It's true then, you've regrouped -- I -- I don't --"

"Can you tell us what happened?" Remus asked. He attempted to place a hand on her forearm gently, but upon the brief physical contact she immediately drew away, as quickly as her weak limbs would allow.

"How do I know you're not lying?" Davie asked, her voice laced with a sort of suspicion that was unfamiliar to all of them. It seemed so unlike her to be so cold and untrusting - at the moment, she was simply an Auror, and not their Davie. "Where's my wand?"

"Picked it up near you," Remus said, pulling a wand from the pocket of his tattered cloak and laying it on Davie's stomach - at this, she seemed to relax greatly, though not completely. For a moment, Davie's fingers curled around her wand, examining it as well as she could without opening her eyes until she was satisfied that it was really hers.

"How do I know you're not using a Polyjuice Potion? They do come cheap these days," Davie said in what was as scathing a tone as she could have managed, and everyone understood, with the previous year's occurrence with Barty Crouch Jr. posing as Mad-Eye Moody and infiltrating Hogwarts for the entire term. "Prove who you are."

"Well-trained. You're an even better Auror than any of us had ever expected," Remus said, unable to restrain a chuckle at Davie's impeccable obedience to the tenets of Aurors' Practices. "D'you remember fifth year, when you refused to dance at the ball, and stormed off when Sirius --"

"Asked to _borrow _me for a dance," Davie said with a weak exhalation that was as close as she could manage to laughter - the coldness in her tone seemed to wane as she felt more secure that she was among friends. Meanwhile, Sirius' demeanor shifted visibly, but it was also clear that as he grew more and more anxious to speak with her himself, he was less and less willing to Remus hushing him.

"The Ministry in Bulgaria - the resident Seer warned all of the Aurors of a hostage situation in the mansion," Davie explained in a slow, hoarse voice. "We didn't know that it her vision involved _us _being the hostages - we were set up -- where are the others?"

"Dead."

"_Severus_?" Davie said in a near-wheeze when she recognized the voice - Sirius bristled at having beaten by Snape again. "They can't be -- there were _ten_ of us --"

"Six mauled beyond recognition, one beheaded, two killed after excessive exposure to the Cruciatus, and," Snape said bluntly, "_you_."

Davie was silent, and Molly Weasley settled near her, looking scandalized by the ease with which Snape was recounted the circumstances of Davie's rescue. "Davina? Dear --"

"_Molly_," Davie said with a deep breath, a smile trying to work its way onto her face. "Molly, is that --"

"What's ailing you, dear?" Molly asked, dabbing at the woman's face with a washcloth.

"What isn't?" Davie retorted with a frail chuckle. "The Cruciatus, more times than I can count -- haven't eaten in about a week -- my _head_ --"

"All can be remedied," Molly said gently, touching her wand to the wound on Davie's scalp

"Where is the Order hiding?" Davie asked breathlessly, "Does Dumbledore know I'm here? You can't risk your safety bringing me here without --"

"The Order's relocated to Grimmauld Place - you're safe here," Remus explained. "We have plenty of wards in place." And then, he moved aside slightly, as if he had already foreseen the way her brow would furrow in recognition.

"Grimmauld Place - is it --" Davie said as her breathing began to steady to an almost normal rate, and she started attempting to open her eyes despite the throbbing pain that remained. "This place belongs to --"

By the time she had managed to open and focus her eyes, Sirius had nudged his way past Remus, situating himself directly in Davie's line of sight -- her voice cracked, and she fell silent, staring at him in near-confusion. With all that the years had done to them all, she nearly failed to recognize him, but those grey eyes --

"Who did this?" Sirius insisted, leaning anxiously over the woman in a manner that seemed to startle her. "Davie, who did this to you?" She looked away from his intense gaze before she answered in an avoidant manner that was all too familiar from their years at Hogwarts, from the years Sirius spent dealing with her unwillingness to be seen with him. _All_ too familiar.

"The Bulgarian ministry --" Davie said in a confused, choked voice as she shook her head as much as she could without provoking an even worse headache. "Death Eaters --"

"Which?" Snape interrupting, hovering stiffly at the rear of the chair in which Davie was lain. "You're not making --"

"You don't understand," Davie hissed, eyes narrowed in determination to get the statement out despite the fact that she was completely exhausted. "The Bulgarian Ministry - it's already been taken. That's the reason they've been trying to slaughter all of the Aurors our ministry sent there."

"Of course," Snape said, raising a hand to his forehead in trying to reconcile how he did not know. The other occupants of the room turned to face him at one of the rare instances where he did not sound condescending. "You can no longer return to Bulgaria --"

"_Obviously_," Davie interrupted with a shadow of a smirk.

Everyone in the room gave a mild chuckle, save for Severus, who tensed and looked quite tempted to roll his eyes. Clearly, even now, many things about Davina Maddux remained the same - her snark, her attitude - but it did not go unnoticed that she seemed to be barely clinging to consciousness. Molly retrieved a plate she'd brought in on the tray and help up a slice of toast slathered in cinnamon and pineapple jam. Davie took it, and despite being on the verge of starvation, she ate gingerly in wariness of being watched by everyone.

"I'm alright," Davie insisted, once she was able to lift the goblet of pumpkin juice steadily on her own. A bit of color had returned to her cheeks in consciousness of all the eyes that were on her "You don't need to do all this --"

"After over a decade," Snape interrupted. "You have gotten no less stubborn. One would think that they'd eventually have beaten it out of you."

"If they'd beaten the stubbornness out of me, I'd be dead," Davie said matter-of-factly.

Sirius broodingly noted Davie's inability to meet his gaze for any significant amount of time. Silently, he conjured up a pair of cushions and laid them near where she sat, then stormed silently back to his own room, leaving the others to continue their interrogation of her.

Remus noted the way Davie stared wordlessly at Sirius as he left, and he placed his hand on hers with a knowing expression, which was shared to some degree by the other inhabitants of the room. The last time they'd all spoken, things had been very different. Sirius was not aware of the way Davie had been the only one in their midst to think he was innocent, the way they'd all alienated her for it. He was unaware of what Davie had been through for his sake, and was at the same time, hurt by her cold reception.

"Always did take you both a bit of time to come to your senses," Remus said encouragingly, giving Davie's shoulder a small squeeze - she flinched slightly, feeling slightly strange being back among everyone again. "But it always happened in the end."

***

_A/N's_

_Ah! I know everyone wanted to know what exactly Davie did after she left Azkaban at the end of the last chapter, but that part is revealed bit by bit in the next few chapters._

_Certainly not the romantic reunion one would have hoped for, but that's what makes for good drama, isn't it? Anyway - we have a new story arc to follow! In a couple of chapters, we'll also see Harry and the others, though I'm still working on that chapter._

_I received a very prompt review from __**d12hpfan**__, less than half an hour after I posted the last chapter, asking if there would be a sequel. I don't think the ending I have planned for this story necessarily is conducive to a sequel, but I also have been playing around with a new idea of an AU story in which Davie says yes when Sirius first proposes, and they have a child who participates in the storyline of the HP series - I've been doing a little bit of brainstorming and quickwriting, but I'll wait to gauge interest in it before actually going anywhere with it. To __**lilmisspurpleshinee,**__ I cried writing the last chapter! It was such an intense scene, I just hope the big scenes in the future can live up to it. Also, thanks to __**Ithilya**__, __**Wateranddarkness666**__, __**dancingqueensillystring **__for reviewing! I always love hearing back from everyone! And also to another returning reviewer, __**Angel-son of Caesar,**__ who wondered why Andromeda was cleaning Tonks up with a napkin since she was a witch after all. I figured to characterize them that way since Andromeda married a Muggle, she'd have picked up doing some things the Muggle way as well._

_Thank you to __**Padfoot'sPixie**__, __**dolphinlover101**__, __**AdaraBlackPotter **__and __**ApollosBaby**__ for favoriting/subscribing._

_Lots of feedback on the last chapter, it really helped me get through yet another rough week at school. Sorry again for the delay, hope no one thinks I've forgotten about writing! Next chapter, we'll see an actual conversation between Davie and Sirius, but not the joyful, tearful reunion you may have been hoping for. Until then, cheers!_


	30. Chapter 30

**Chapter Thirty**

_July the Thirteenth, Nine Hundred Ninety-Five_

When Davie finally awoke the next morning, she was still in the armchair, covered by a rather heavy wool blanket that was almost unpleasantly warm in the hot summer weather; the summer was, as the Muggle paper proclaimed it, one of the hottest that had been seen in the region in decades. The sun was already high and bright enough to creep through the closed shutters. Davie rubbed her eyes, glancing around tiredly. It appeared the house was empty, except for --

"You're up then," Sirius said, stepping out of the kitchen still clad in his nightshirt, effectively startling Davie with his sudden appearance - he, however, seemed unaffected by her jumpiness; he had a look about him that had either already had a bit to drink, or was still under the influence of what he had been drinking the previous night. "Molly left some food, but no one's going to be back until this evening."

"Mm." Davie nodded tiredly, sitting up carefully and taking the blanket off of her shoulders, looking down at herself and her torn clothes, still stained with blood from her wounds. The tender feeling running down her back suggested that those wounds, however, were still in the process of closing.

"The washcloset's down the hall."

"Mm."

"You're still a mess."

"Mmm."

"Well. I'm going to the kitchen then, since you're such a brilliant conversationalist." Sirius sneered almost childishly at Davie's blank responses. "I swear, you used to be summat' of a morning person."

Sirius then tromped into the kitchen, taking his time scarfing down an entire platter of pumpkin pasties, setting a plate of turkey wings for Buckbeak on the table for Kreacher to take, then pouring himself a drink. That, he felt, was more than enough time for Davie to get her eyes accustomed to the sun, stretch her sore limbs - whatever else was necessary for her to begin acting with the least bit of normalcy. Sirius was, however, very quickly disappointed when he returned to the receiving room and Davie was still in the same chair, not having moved an inch since his departure minutes earlier.

"_You_ --" Sirius said in sudden frustration, slamming his tankard of pumpkin juice down on the table between them, sitting across from her. "Do you have some sort of problem that you refuse to even _talk_ --"

"I've just been _tortured_, in case that evaded your recollection," Davie sneered hoarsely, her voice weak from days of disuse. "My sincerest apologies if I'm not feeling particularly chatty --"

"Not even glad to see me!" Sirius continued with hardly a pause, standing up and gesticulating upwards rather carelessly, so that his sobriety seemed even more questionable. "No, 'I missed you Sirius,' no, 'you look good considering you've been in Azkaban --"

"Well, what do you expect? You've let yourself go --"

"Look who's talking!"

"_What part of 'I've been tortured' is so hard for you to understand?!_" Davie said shrilly, holding a hand to her forehead as though she was nearly to the point of ripping out her own hair. "I don't _want_ to talk."

Sirius froze, stooping forward and leaning across the table to face Davie. "Why not?" he asked with a humorless smirk. "I'd have expected you to at least do me the courtesy of a nice speech about _feelings change_ and --"

"You know, I did my share of _talking_ and _feeling_ while you were in Azkaban."

"Is that what this is about?" Sirius said, throwing his hands up furious again. "Do you _know_ what Azkaban in like? _Do you --_"

"Do you know what I _did?_" Davie asked shrilly, her forehead wrinkling in attempts to keep from crying in frustration; she leaned forward across the table so that she was just inches away from Sirius' face. "I was pathetic and lovesick and desperate -- I almost _killed_ someone! I thought if I got myself thrown into Azkaban and we were there together, we could escape, and I --"

At this point, Davie froze, and the sudden openness towards Sirius fizzled away into nothing. Sirius shifted, grabbing her tightly by the shoulders.

"_Davie_," he said, looking eerily desperate to get through to her. "I heard you. Every time you came to Azkaban for me, I did, I --"

"I understand, now can we just --"

"Fifteen years and you still can't stop interrupting me," Sirius grumbled, and for a brief moment, it almost seemed like the natural reaction to laugh. "It wasn't about hurting you or forgetting you - I had to survive. I couldn't let myself realize it was you, Davie. I couldn't let that be another memory for the dementors to --"

"I _said_ that I understand --"

"--take away from me. That was a memory I couldn't let them ruin --"

"One word! One _sign_, anything!" Davie said shrilly, her voice cracking as she finally succumbed to the harsh urge to cry while being faced with a situation she had avoided for years. She shoved his hands from her shoulders with as much force as she could manage. "You couldn't give me _one_ single moment --"

"You think I wanted to --"

"No! Instead, you let a twenty-year-old girl think she'd lost everything in her life that was supposed to help hold it together--"

"_I KNEW!_" Sirius bellowed, reaching into the pocket of his nightshirt and pulling out a long, glittering object - the necklace he had given her in school, which she had returned to him the last time she had paid him a visit in Azkaban. This was clearly something she had not expected to see - her shoulders shook as she was momentarily unable to respond. "Every time, I knew you were there - but I couldn't bear for every memory of you I had to become a midday snack for a dementor, even if it meant I didn't get to remember them myself. I couldn't bear to lose you to anyone --"

"Well, you failed there, didn't you?

"What?"

"Do you realize," Davie said, her eyes clenched shut and her teeth gritted as she inhaled deeply, trying not to get carried away in the situation as she did so many times while fighting with Sirius before. They were no longer children. They were adults with issues to resolve so they could move on with their lives, Davie thought to herself. "That it broke my heart to pieces every time I walked through those doors, and you were begging to be let out, and I had found _nothing_ that could help you? I remember every moment, every bloody moment will _haunt_ me for the rest of my life because I promised I'd help you but I couldn't - I couldn't show myself to you after --"

"You haven't changed at all!" Sirius barked, his face still livid. "Did I _realize_ how you felt? Not in the least - because you expect me to know everything you're feeling without being told, you expect me to read your mind!"

"I never--" Davie began after a brief pause, opening her mouth to speak before her gaze suddenly went unfocused; the sudden rush of emotion, the sudden exertion proved to be too much, too fast and she fell into a dead faint before Sirius could ever hear what she had started to say.

***

_A/N's_

_Very short chapter, sorry! It was actually the beginning of a longer chapter, but after some thinking, I decided to divide them because it made the next chapter a bit too long. _

_Also, to any of my reviewers who have the time, I wanted to ask you guys which scene of the story so far has been your favorite, or which scene you've found most memorable. I just want to get a good idea of what sort of scenes my readers like most, so I can keep it mind during the editing process._

_The last chapter, I was super excited to get a bunch of reviews so quickly, within the first hour or so of the chapter being posted._

_To __**dancingqueensillystring**__, they can be really dull at times, can't they? I'm just giving Davie and Sirius a bit of the runaround, but of course, they still care about one another. Just dealing with a very dysfunctional relationship. And Harry will make his return in a few chapters as well - though if you'll recall, he wasn't a very cheery person in OOTP. To __**Ithilya**__, yes! I hope to have them sort things out soon too, though I'm trying to make sure not to rush it. It's sort of my pet peeve with some stories when everything feels rushed, so that's what I'm trying to avoid. __**Wateranddarkness666, **__thanks for all your feedback - I was hoping people wouldn't be too disappointed about the lack of a super happy reunion - Davie's been through a lot, as will be revealed, mostly through a lot of flashbacks in chapters to come. To __**lilmisspurplesunshinee,**__ it was a bit sour of Sirius to walk out, but the poor guy didn't get the happy reunion he wanted either. They'll be warming up to one another again soon though! To __**passingwhisper, **__Davie was planning on doing something desperate, but she didn't go through with it - the reason will be revealed soon as well._

_Also, thank you to __**Tristan's Lady Meg,**__**tonidepp16, **__and __**Jordanjinxxer **__for favoriting and/or subscribing, and thank you to everyone for sticking with the story this long so far. I have a lot planned, and the story is almost completely planned out, it just needs to be finalized. I'm not sure if the story will hit fifty chapters, but it might cut it close. Hopefully it won't take too long! I also got a couple of people expressing interest in the AU story I proposed last chapter, so I might continue brainstorming on that one._

_I also got a private message from a reader asking if there was any way to contact me apart from FFNet to bug me for quicker updates. If anyone would like to do so, during those stints where I take a bit longer than usual to update, my name on Twitter is __**vickymarie **__if you feel so inclined._

_Anyway, for all of you rooting for Sirius and Davie, next chapter will contain some parts that I think you will be glad to see. That's all the hints you get! The next chapter should be posted up by the end of next week if I get plenty of feedback, wink wink nudge nudge! Cheers!_


	31. Chapter 31

**Chapter Thirty One**

_July the Thirteenth, Nine Hundred Ninety-Five  
__Early Evening_

The first sensation that reached Davie's awareness when she regained consciousness was that was laying on her side. Her back was cold and --

"_Ouch_," she groaned, raising her arm weakly as she realized the wounds on her back, which had been rendered reparable only by Muggle means by use of numerous curses, were being cleaned. "Sirius, you don't need to --"

But when she weakly turned, readjusting the back of her shirt so that it covered her back, she was met not by Sirius' steely grey eyes, but by a cold, dark pair of eyes shaded by jet black hair.

"Severus?" Davie asked, leaning back carefully on her arms which had not completely shaken the feeling of being similar to limp noodles. "When did you --? Sirius said no one was supposed to arrive until --"

"I departed from Hogwarts early. I suspected Black would be too hotheaded to follow simple directions - a belief which does not appear to have been erroneous." Snape said coolly. "When I arrived I could hear Black barking his interrogation from down the corridor. You'd fainted by the time I reached the receiving room. Have you eaten?"

"No."

"And your wounds have obviously not been tended to," Snape added.

"I'm fine --"

"I'm sure," he sneered in response. "But the circumstance remains that Black is unable to follow to most rudimentary of instructions. Now, if you will allow me to finish."

Hesitantly, Davie returned to the position in which she had awoken, taken the brief opportunity to glance around the room - it was decorated in Slytherin pennants and dark fabrics, which Davie could only deduce were the choice in décor of Sirius' younger brother, Regulus. When Snape raised the back of Davie's shirt and dabbed at another wound, she gave a visible hiss. "I remember that one," she said through gritted teeth as he tended to it silently. "A gift from Mulciber. Lily and I turned out to be right about him --"

"What does she have to do with this?"

"She has _everything_ to do with this, doesn't she Severus?" Davie said knowingly. "Everything you've done all these years, you haven't had to say a word. It's all been for --"

"Enough." Snape interrupted with a sharp hiss. "As I told you years ago, the _how_ and the _why _no longer matter. I don't need to be reminded of how I found myself in this position."

"Nor do I," Davie answered quietly. "Things are different --"

"And do you plan on telling Black just how _different_ things have become since your last meeting?" Snape asked snidely, admittedly relishing the fact that Davie tensed visibly. "Or will I be obliged to inform him --"

"_Severus_," she hissed. "All of that was a long time ago - I have no further reason to tell Sirius _anything_. My decisions were what they were. It was a _lifetime_ ago."

"Indeed," he assented. "But it would appear that Black --"

"I don't appreciate being gossiped about in my own home," came a deep, gruff voice in the doorway. "I can take over now, _Sniv_--"

"Sirius!"

"No, Maddux - don't stop him," Snape said, holding up a hand to silence the girl as he smiled nastily. "Let him show you how much he's matured all these years." With a condescending bow, he sneered at Sirius, teeth bared in a humorless, feral imitation of a grin. "I leave the lady to the master of the house."

"Git," Sirius snarled as Snape swept out of the room, shutting the door behind him.

"He was just trying to get a rise out of you - and it worked, as always," Davie said in a woeful, chiding tone that was so familiar that Sirius couldn't help but smile at it. Davie sat up weakly and adjusted her clothes again. Sirius only now noted the fact that her body was covered in dark, unsightly bruises that seemed even larger on her thin, almost emaciated limbs. "You don't always need to -- _oh_!"

Her arms wavered beneath her and gave way beneath her - Sirius immediately dove forward and caught her in his arms to break what would have been a rather uncomfortable drop.

"Err -- Beater reflexes still seem to be in tact," he asked huskily, noting the closeness now that he help her about the shoulders. He hadn't consciously meant to put himself or Davie in this position, but now felt no compulsion to remedy it. With his face so close to hers - was it even possible that she was more than a decade older than he'd last been this close to her? Under the bruises, the sun and windburned skin, and the weary lines, she hardly looked different at all.

"I've, ah -- I never saw these," Davie said quietly, rending her gaze away from his and lowering them to the tattoos emblazoned across his chest, visible past his disheveled, partially unbuttoned shirt. "I must say, I'm not partial to them. I like them even less than the earring," she laughed weakly. "But…" Her voice trailed off, and Sirius felt some satisfaction in knowing that despite valiant effort on her part, the sudden closeness was something she too could not avoid being affected by.

"I just can't -- can't help being curious about them is all," she continued. She sounded so much like the tender, whimsical, inquisitive girl that Sirius had once taken so much pleasure in pestering before realizing that he had fallen in love with her; his skin prickled. After helping her get situated and sit on her own in the guest bed, he pulled up a chair beside it, unbuttoning his shirt - they were no longer teenagers. This wasn't a heated, passionate moment hidden behind a suit of armor in the Hogwarts corridors, Sirius reminded himself. Even if he didn't quite feel it, they were adults.

The expression on Davie's face seemed to momentarily confirm what Sirius had feared since he had started anticipating her arrival: while the woman in front of Sirius Black appeared very similar to the girl he had once known, it was unlikely that Davina Maddux would perceive the man in front of her as the same Sirius. Davie's eyes lingered on the latticework of tattoos and thin scars across his chest and shoulders, brushing her fingertips faintly across the marks - was she afraid? Disgusted?

"I _did_ want to be there with you. Every moment of it," Davie said in a voice so faint that Sirius initially thought he had been imagining it altogether. "Even if it meant being thrown into Azkaban too. It's surprising --" she said, her voice seeming to progressively become more and more constricted in her throat. "-- what you're willing to do when you're young, and desperate, and -- hopelessly in love. You don't care who gets in the way. Nothing else seems important…"

"Davie, you didn't…" Sirius said, unconsciously giving her a slight shake. "You didn't hurt anyone just to be with _me_ --"

"No," she continued with a sad laugh, still unable to meet Sirius' gaze. "I didn't do anything insane. Nearly, though. The night after I last saw you, I was prepared to kill someone. Anyone. It didn't even matter who. But I…" her voice trailed off again. She wasn't ready yet to speak about the aftermath of the night, and she suspected that no one else would tell Sirius except for herself. "I talked myself out of it."

"That's good, then," Sirius said, clearing his throat slightly, his tone somewhat lame and awkward as though he wasn't sure how to adapt to the realization of the gravity of the effect he'd had on Davie's life. "I mean -- look at you. Your life went all right, didn't it? You're an Auror, just like you always wanted to be."

"Yeah," Davie said blankly. "Just -- j-just like I --"

She suddenly felt herself grow slightly dizzy - the violent speed of her heartbeat upon being faced with Sirius again was constantly overwhelming. Her arms went slack again, and she wavered forward, needing to brace herself against his chest to keep from falling.

"You really need to stop doing that," Sirius laughed huskily, and he may have been naïve enough to believe they had overcome the strong physical tension between them, until Davie laughed as well -- the light sensation of her cool breaths across the skin of his chest caused his breath to hitch; it was a sensation that in all these years, nothing had been able to duplicate. It was familiar, and yet new, it caused a confusing sort of rush in him that he'd been seeking out in inebriation and had never found. He grabbed Davie firmly but not harshly by the shoulders, grimacing slightly at the feeling of having her so close, of caring for her and being unable to sense the same in reciprocity.

"Sirius?"

"You haven't missed me?" he asked in a tight voice, his forehead wrinkled as he attempted not to look at her. "Not even in the --"

"How can you say that?" Davie asked shrilly. "You think I didn't _miss_ you? I had to run away from everyone and everything that meant anything to me here just to come to terms with you being gone - I had to leave because it hurt too much to be reminded I couldn't have you! I couldn't live my life anymore, and you think I haven't --"

"You heard I escaped!" Sirius retorted. "You knew Remus was at Hogwarts, you knew where everyone was! And you didn't even think to --"

"What was I supposed to do, Sirius?" Davie asked, shoving away from him and looking surprisingly stable now in the midst of a confrontation -- it seemed so typical of her. "Owl everyone and ask if I could back for a visit? When everyone treated me like I was insane for defending you, I was supposed to come _back_?!" she continued as hot, furious tears began streaming down her cheeks - and Davie crying was a sight that Sirius had never truly been able to handle with much poise. "I was twenty one when I last saw you and you'd expect me to run back to England just like nothing has changed --"

"NOTHING HAS CHANGED FOR ME!"

"So I just need top adjust _my_ life accordingly!" Davie laughed humorlessly, her voice shrill and piercing. "To hell with the fact that I wasn't ready for --"

"Ready for what?!" Sirius snapped. ""Ready to put the bloody effort into _pretending_ to love a mand you haven't ever --"

But before he finished, Sirius was quickly acquainted with the reflexes that Davie had acquired through a decade of being an Auror. In what seemed like a millisecond, Davie's hand lashed forward and pulled Sirius' wand from his back pocket; he found himself at the wrong end of his own wand.

"If you accuse me of not loving you -- if you tell me that all I did was _pretending_," Davie said through gritted teeth. "Merlin help me, Sirius, I might just kill you."

"I LOVE YOU!" Sirius bellowed in frustration, nothing remotely close to the romantic way he had admittedly often imagined being able to tell this woman again how he felt. "What about that do you not --"

"_Understand?_" Davie cried. "Nothing! I understand every single bit perfectly Sirius - you love me! And I still love you! What good does it do either of us anymore? We don't even _know _each other anymore and you think --"

"So you love me!"

"_Don't do this to me again_!" Davie yelled furiously, propping herself with one hand and wiping vehemently at her eyes with the other. "If you think you can play with my words again -- if you think you can use the same tricks on me you did when we were in school --"

"You want to talk about being _tricked_!" Sirius barked. "I asked you to marry me and you said there'd be _plenty of time_, once the fighting was through." he said with a half-snarl, leaning so close to Davie that the proximity now scared her a bit. "Well, Davie - since you're so wise, where's that time _now_?"

"Do you think I can _change_ the past? Do you think I can turn back time?" Davie sobbed hopelessly and furiously all at once - she was somewhat a cross between a scared child, and a wild cat backed into a corner. "You think somehow I can just give you back all of the time you lost just because --"

"I want a chance to _start_!" Sirius said, grabbing Davie by the forearms as though giving her a shake would make her able to understand. "I want the life they took from me - my life stopped the day Lily and James died, and now you're going to tell me the Davie I knew is dead too --"

"_The Davie you knew,_" she scoffed, squirming slightly in his grasp as he refused to relent. "We were in school! Back, I would have never been willing to kill --"

"You didn't _kill _anyone, you're only as much of a murderer as I am --"

"I'm _more _-- I was _willing _to kill, I wasn't going to be framed," Davie said darkly. "And I haven't been the same since I realized what I'd come too. Look at me!" she said desperately. "The Davie you knew would never have gone this far --"

"The only difference between now and then is that the old Davie didn't _know_ what she was capable of. The Davie I knew was still bent on revenge on the Deatheaters that killed her parents. The attacks on Hogsmeade --" Sirius growled; to him, it was painfully obvious that she still was very much the same girl she had always been, the same girl who ran and hid because she was afraid, because she could not bear the thought of change. "The only thing that's changed is that you became everything I saw in you -- and look at _me_ --"

"What's supposed to happen, things are just supposed to be _normal_ now?" Davie asked with a desperate frustration present in her voice that Sirius knew as a harbinger of her hardheadedness beginning to waver. "We can't just pick up where we left off like --"

But before she could complete her rebuttal, Sirius tightened his grip on her arms, yanking her forward and resolutely pulling her lips to meet his.

The effect on Davie was explosive and immediate -- she tried at first to convince herself that this was not _her_ Sirius anymore and that they no longer had any right to do this. She tried to remain convinced that the scent of fire whiskey and dust, the unkemptness of his hair, the lines, and the scars changed anything. But his lips banished all concern of those things, sending her consciousness flying back twenty years, They were once again teenagers trying not to get caught behind Greenhouse Five. Davie had spent years, a decade even, trying to convince herself that would never be the same. Why, then, did everything feel the same?

For Sirius, it was something even more momentous - something even greater. Over a decade in Azkaban had robbed him of sensation and exhilaration and all the things he had once valued over all else, and since his escape, he had struggled to retain it - he wanted to find something of the youth that he had once taken for granted. The burn of firewhiskey down his throat gave him sensation, but no thrill or inner warmth. The recklessness of being a fugitive gave him the occasional exhilaration, but in the end left him with nothing.

But this - his lips and Davie's lips, her weight in his arms, her arms now clinging tightly around his shoulders - was the familiar, stomach-churning, heart-pounding slow burn that he had failed so many times to replicate. The way she so openly received his kiss, the hesitant parting of her lips and the warmth of her breath - if Sirius shut his eyes and forgot he was in his brother Regulus' old bedroom, in the home he so deeply loathed, it all seemed very much correct...

_A/N's_

_And thank goodness, we finally get these two in a liplock again - but don't get too comfortable! I never make it that easy for these two, mind you._

_ The next chapter picks up immediately where this one leaves off, so I'll let the wheels of your mind continue turning, trying to predict where things go from here. I'm going to keep responses fairly quick for this chapter because I want to get back to work on the next one. So, to **Psycho-Bunny1309**, **Terrorist of the Seven Seas**, **Mymy2014**, **Jordanjinxxer**, **tonidepp16**, and **Tristan's Lady Meg **for subscribing/favoriting, to **amrawo**, **passingwhisper**, **Secerts of the Roman Empire**, **lilmisspurplesunshinee**, and **Wateranddarkness666** for reviewing._

_Like I said, don't get too comfortable with Sirius and Davie being cozy just yet - of course, they have feelings for one another, so the kiss is understandable. But after one step forward, there are very often two steps back. Cheers!_


	32. Chapter 32

**Chapter Thirty-Two**

_Last Time_

_But this - his lips and Davie's lips, her weight in his arms, her arms now clinging tightly around his shoulders - was the familiar, stomach-churning, heart-pounding slow burn that he had failed so many times to replicate. The way she so openly received his kiss, the hesitant parting of her lips and the warmth of her breath - if Sirius shut his eyes and forgot he was in his brother Regulus' old bedroom, in the home he so deeply loathed, it all seemed very much correct…._

CRACK!

Davie pulled away from Sirius quickly upon hearing the large bang in the receiving room, which meant the others were now arriving by Floo - and suddenly, things came rushing back into perspective. Davie's face reddened as she realized what she'd done, that she'd done what she had tried so hard to convince herself was no longer appropriate. Sirius' frustration was evident on his face - yet he found some unspoken amusement in feeling like he did in school, feeling teased by the girl he desired, of having to chase her. A part of him felt the game in this all over again.

"I, ah --" Davie said squeamishly, carefully groping over the bedside table until her fingers curled around her own wand and touching it to the knee of her own ripped work trousers. "I ought to change out of this, or Molly will start fawning over me again -- _Formendi._" she said with a weak laugh as her pants repaired themselves and her torn oxford shirt transfigured into a purple turtleneck jumper.

"You kissed me back."

"I know I did."

"So that means --"

But before he could finished, Davie had already stood up and maneuvered across the room to open the door to the remainder of the house; when she emerged from the room, admittedly looking far more put together than she had been the previous night, the reaction to her presence was immediate.

"Oh, Davie dear," Molly trilled. "Thank Merlin you're up."

"Maddux," barked Alastor Moody, who was hobbling towards her with his usual stalking stride. Davie noted that he looked even more frazzled and suspicious than usual, and attributed to what she had heard about Barty Crouch Jr. locking him in a trunk for an entire school term. "Only just heard -- blasted good Auror you turned out to be, just like your mum and dad," Moody hawed genuinely, giving her a sound, congratulatory whack between the shoulder blades, which succeeded in knocking the petite woman stumbling forward a step or two.

"Alastor, you might want to let up on her a bit," Arthur pointed out carefully, raising a finger in lukewarm chiding "You know, after all she's been through." Moody's eye darted in its socket toward him, and Alastor Moody gave a hearty, patronizing laugh.

"Been through!" he guffawed. "If Maddux can handle three weeks of starvation and the Cruciatus, a good pat on the back won't do much more harm, will it Maddux?"

"S'pose not," Davie said with a slightly pained but altogether good-humored laugh - she couldn't grudge anything against Alastor Moody, whom she had first met training as an Auror in Bulgaria. "It's good to see you again, Mad-Eye --"

"-- _thumpin'_ good Auror. One of the best, I reckon," Moody began murmuring to himself as he paced away from the group, which caused them all to exchange glances of marked attempt not to laugh at his eccentricity. "Withstood one of the Unforgivable Curses -- one of my own! Trained you well…"

"Right you did, Mad-Eye," Davie muttered to herself, pursing her lips in humor as she took a seat in the same armchair she'd been placed in the previous night.

"You look nicely cleaned up," Molly said, moving towards her and giving her shoulder a kind rub. Molly Weasley, oddly enough, had always treated Davie as though she were so much younger than everyone else in the Order, and this was something that seemed to have changed very little since then. "Sirius did a fine job, then," she pointed out before adding in a more quiet voice. "We were afraid he might not be able to focus, what with --"

"--how you used to be all over one another, they said --"

"Nympha--"

"It's _Tonks_," the younger woman said, narrowing her eyes and crossing her arms at Molly in a very comical, childlike pout. "_Just_ Tonks, Mrs. Weasley. Anyway, d;you still remember me, Davie? I did mean to say hello when I went to Bulgaria for a short stint in Auror training, but I wasn't sure."

"You _should_ have," Davie said with a grin. "I think I may have seen you when you were there - your hair was green back then, was it not?"

"You have a bit of an accent now," Tonks pointed out with a grin, noting the way Davie's voice seemed to inflect a bit differently on words after living in Bulgaria for so long. "Say it again a moment -- _'ven you vere there--'_"

"Have you had a moment to have a word with Sirius?" Molly asked in a quiet voice. Davie paused, glancing over at Sirius, then at Severus before looking back to Molly and shrugging noncommittally. Molly certainly had her issues with Sirius' brash nature and most definitely did not want him to be any sort of influence on her children, but she did not begrudge him his right to being happy. "You two ought to clear things up before the children arrive - any day now, it ought to be. I suspect there'll be a few choice words exchanged that aren't particularly appropriate for children."

"You know us too well, Molly," Davie replied with a weak laugh. "I-- I do still care for him. It's just very different now."

Molly opened her mouth to speak again, and Davie was more than happy to receive any advice at all regarding the situation, but then, Remus approached, pulling a large leatherbound book from under his traveling cloak - the cover was slightly worn, but Davie and Sirius both turned quickly upon seeing it.

"Remus, are you holding what I think you're --"

"Something I thought would be appropriate to bring along with me, considering this is the most of the gang we're going to have together again," he said with a meager grin - Davie had already scurried over and very eagerly took the book from his hands and opened it to the first page, confirming her guess that it was indeed their old photo album.

Remus sat on the sofa, and Davie sat next to him, holding the album on her lap - it surprised the inhabitants of the room that Davie allowed Sirius to sit on her other side, but no one commented. Instead, the rest of the Order pretended to go about their own business. Things, it would seem, had been relatively calm.

"Oh, look!" Davie said jovially, pointing at a photo on one of the first pages with a much younger Davie in ivory dress robes, being forcibly dragged onto the dance floor by Remus; in this particular photo she was threatening to take off her shoe and fling it at a very amused-looking Lupin. "I remember that --"

"Right before Sirius asked you to dance," Remus laughed, noting Sirius in the background of the photo, occasionally peering in to the frame.

"Oh, right - I was so _angry_!"

"Bollocks, you came to the dance with me the next year --"

"No, I didn't," Davie said primly, poking a finger in Sirius' direction. "I went with Rom the next year, and you the year after." Sirius rolled his eyes - Davie, meanwhile, shot a glance at Snape, who had briefly glanced in their direction. The dance during which the particular photo was taken, James and Sirius had locked him in a Vanishing Cabinet for days - for him, hearing recantation of their school days held nothing but negative memories.

"Oh, look at _that_ one," Sirius said with a chuckle, flipping the page and pointing at a photo that had been taken in the Potions dungeons during class - Lily and Davie were standing behind a cauldron, with Davie's hair coated in an inky black substance. "You looked like a sea monster --"

"I remember that," Remus laughed. "The one time Lily made a mistake in Potions - I think it was right after James had tried asking her to Hogsmeade."

Again, Davie glanced uncomfortably at Snape, who attempted to appear as though he hadn't been looking or listening to the exchange. Guiltily, Davie quickly turned the page, and let out a loud squeal of excitement.

"These are the _best_!" Davie said, beaming excitedly, and Sirius couldn't help but stare at the smile that he'd not seen for over a decade - it was almost identical, save for a few extra creases on the woman's face. Davie gestured emphatically to a page of photos taken at edge of the Great Lake - the impromptu picnic they had set up the day that Davie had found out she had been accepted to the Auror training program.

"Well, would you look at that," Remus said with a knowing smile, noting how Davie's eyes lingered on a particular pair of photos, one of James kissing Lily on the cheek, and the other of Sirius holding a very surprised Davie in an exaggerated dip. She smiled faintly, and glanced briefly at Sirius, realizing he had been staring at her the entire time.

"D'you remember what we talked about that day?" Davie asked before she could help herself; her face reddened immediately.

"I remember what you said," Sirius said with a nod, looking much calmer than he had in a great while - the more gentle timbre of his voice caught everyone's attention even more than his usual loud tone. "'Strange things happen when people grow up --'"

"'I think it's a little like dying,'" Davie finished, brow furrowing in surprise at how easily all of their old conversations seemed to come back. She cleared her throat, unsure of what else to say. Remus noted the tension and pointed at a blurry shape at the side of one of the photos.

"What's that?"

"It's your finger, Remus," Davie laughed, bumping him with her shoulder in amusement. "You were never much of a photographer, were you?"

The three of them indeed seemed quite content in looking through this particular set of memories, until they reached the last photo in the set - the four boys, Lily, and Davie all sitting on the picnic blanket. Lily and Davie were chiding James and Sirius respectively, James for ruffling his hair, and Sirius for trying to eat another Mallowpuff as the photo was being taken, while Remus and Peter both laughed before they all finally set up for a proper photo. Underneath the photos was a small passage of writing in Davie's loopy, ornate penmanship.

"_Though nothing can bring back the hour of splendor in the grass, of glory in the flower_," Davie read in a slightly dazed voice. "_We will weep not, rather --_"

"That's from that poem, wasn't it?" Sirius interrupted, "from the book that Mr. and Mrs. Evans gave you as a graduation present?"

"Yeah -- look! There they are," Davie laughed, flipping the page to a set of photos from their Hogwarts graduation, the first of which depicted Lily's parents posing with them for a photo; from this one, Peter was absent because he was taking the photo, and inwardly, the three of them thought that his absence made the photo ten times better, because they could pretend he had not been there.

"Oh," Davie said with a small gasp when she came across a photo of herself and Lily - she felt a slight pang at the sight of her best friend. Davie had so many times in their youth wished she could _be_ Lily, be as naturally intelligent and as poised. It had taken Davie years to come into her own and be a real best friend instead of a shadow to Lily. That was part of what the desire to become an Auror stemmed from, which took many years for Davie to realize.

Sensing her discomfort, Sirius reached out and flipped the page himself, and now, it was his turn to feel a stab when he came across a pair of photos just of himself and Davie. The first was a shot someone had snapped of Davie placing a medal around Sirius' neck during the graduation ceremony in his parents' absence - the moment, Sirius remembered that he had resolved to himself that he would never lose her at any cot. The second was one a close-up shot of Sirius and Davie - one of them must have just held out the camera to take a picture of themselves - stealing a kiss and smiling brightly. Sirius glanced at Davie, who went slightly pink in the face at the sight of the photo, but for once, he could manage to say nothing.

They went a few more pages, and reached a page with even more photos than the rest of them - Lily and James' wedding. By now a couple of the others had come to the back side of the couch and started looking at the album as well - Severus Snape, however, excused himself to the kitchen.

"I remember that," Davie said with a weak laugh, glancing over at Sirius as she gestured to a photo with Sirius standing, raising a glass of champagne, his hand gesturing lazily in testament to the fact that he'd already had a few too many glasses. "'_To Lily and James -- may you share many, many, many years of happiness, and may James come up with a far more touching toast --_"

"-- at mine and Davie's wedding," Sirius finished matter-of-factly, and Davie froze, feeling suddenly awkward at the fact that every single one of these memories were of a time when Davie and Sirius were undeniably and unequivocally smitten with one another, and had every intention of spending the rest of their lives together. It seemed surreal, recalling all of this after being apart for over a decade.

"Oh, look," Molly laughed, gesturing at the same photo as Davie reached up and pinched Sirius hard on the arm, yanking him downward and back into his seat. "It looks like she heard you."

After a while, the pages of photos grew more and more sparse - and Sirius noticed many photos of times which seemed unfamiliar to him. Remus noted the shift in his expression, and Davie's sudden discomfort as well and took it upon himself to explain.

"These were -- after Lily and James died. Quite a while after, Frank and Alice had already…" he explained, his voice trailing off in reference to the Longbottoms, who had been tortured to the point of insanity. "We tried to get the Order back together, stay close in case something happened - it didn't work so well, obviously. Everyone ended up going their separate ways anyway."

Davie, however, had her eyes on a page where a picture had obviously been removed, and when she looked up at Remus, he gave her an almost imperceptible nod.

"Excuse me," Davie said, clearing her throat again, standing up from her seat. "Remus, will you come with me to the hallway for a moment?"

Davie scurried away, much to Sirius' confusion - everyone else did not seem quite so surprised, and indeed a slight air of guilt filled the room as Remus got up to follow Davie into the front hallway, shutting the door behind him.

"Remus, I --"

"I didn't think Sirius was ready to know," Remus nodded. "I left the more… incriminating photos in my study."

"It's not important," Davie said, shaking her head fervently, raising her hand to silence Lupin's concerns. "It was a couple of months - some of the hardest months of my life, and I made some of my worst decisions. Sirius doesn't ever need to know."

"Davie," Remus chided, taking a few careful steps towards Davie. "I understand you. I know that you were right, and we were all wrong about Sirius - but Sirius may _not_ be so understanding. He never said goodbye to you. In his mind, you and he never ended things."

"That's ridiculous."

"That's Sirius for you, isn't it?"

Davie gave a forced laugh that sounded a bit like a cough, shaking her head and letting out a breath. "Thank you for covering up for me, Moony," she said with a lopsided grin. "I suppose -- I suppose I'm not ready to revisit all of it either. Maybe eventually."

"When you're ready to speak about it," Lupin said simply. "Then I am prepared to apologize for it. I ought to have been a better -- a better friend. You'd have been far more loyal to me, had the tables been turned."

Remus gave a knowing nod, reaching out and patting Davie on the shoulder and smiling before returning to the receiving room to join everyone else. Davie, however, remained in the hallway, crossing her arms over herself, deep in thought. She stood there for minutes, hardly noticing anything around her. She didn't even hear someone approach her from behind until Severus Snape spoke up, causing her to flinch as she turned around.

"Are you ever planning on telling Black?" he said, crossing his arms as well. "About why your brilliant plan to join him in Azkaban never came to fruition?"

"No. I'm _not_ planning on telling him," Davie said sharply, discomforted by the knowing expression of Snape's face. "He doesn't need to know anything that's happened to me in the past fifteen years."

"I suppose not," Snape said vaguely. "He doesn't _need _to. But imagine his chagrin, upon hearing that you and Lupin could have both told him the truth, but instead --"

"Severus, do _not_ --"

"He'll go mad if he knows," Snape said with a vague, cold smile. "And I would honestly like nothing better than to see him lose his mind, but for the sake of having nothing against you --"

"Let's not bother with niceties, Severus," Davie said stiffly, squaring her stance as she looked Snape in the eye - something about this exchange was tense, uncomfortable. "You've only ever considered my feelings because of Lily."

"My reasons are not important - we agreed many years ago, the how and the why are no longer of significance, did we not?" he asked vaguely. "All that concerns you is that I am keeping your secret."

"What _concerns_ me," Davie said sharply, taking a few steps backwards towards the door to the receiving room without taking her eyes away from Snape, "is that my secret is in the hands of someone with nothing to lose."

Davie turned quickly back into the room, and while she attempted to appear normal for the rest of the evening, there was a tangible sort of stiffness to her demeanor. Sirius had attempted to speak with her - surprisingly, at Molly's insistence - to no avail. He went to his room to sleep as everyone else was retiring as well, and for a good thirty minutes, he sat in his worn down four-poster, glancing as he always did at the posters, photos, and Gryffindor pennants that were permanently stuck to his wall, for better or for worse. He took some comfort looking at old photos of his life, before he had run away from home, except for the ones that contained Wormtail. What was not comforting for him was the fact that none of the photos on his walls contained Davie - he hadn't been able to procure any of his own photos of her from their younger years, and he had never fancied the vulnerability of asking anyone for them.

All of this thinking, he decided, warranted a fresh bottle of fire whiskey. He stood up, not bothering to button his nightshirt, and stepped out of his bedroom. All of the lights were out, and for the sake of safety, the shutters were all drawn, casting the house in almost complete darkness. He walked casually to the kitchen, pulled a bottle out of a hidden cabinet, and made his way back to the living room - he made sure not to make any noise, even though the living room was empty. If he woke Molly Weasley, she would no doubt give him a harsh reprimand for consuming more alcohol than food.

He grumbled something about being ordered around in his own home, and let his legs go slack, expecting to sink comfortably into the cushion of the sofa - he was not, however, expecting to meet with a harder, oddly shaped surface.

"Ouch," came a quiet, groggy moan that Sirius recognized as belonging to Davie. He stood up quickly, hastily placing the bottle down on the table.

"What are you doing out here?" he asked gruffly. "I thought I'd set you up in --"

"Regulus' old room," Davie nodded. "It was a bit awkward - Kreacher popped in a few minutes ago, and I think he was fondling one of your brother's old Wellies. I didn't want to risk the little bugger trying to smother me to death for getting my _blood traitor germs_ on his master's old bed," she added with a weak laugh. _This_, Sirius thought, was the shrewd, snarky, but altogether well-humored Davie he knew.

"What brings you out - never mind," Davie said, beginning to ask the question before her nose caught a familiar whiff. "I suppose a bottle of Ogden's Olde gets you a better night's sleep, then?"

"Better than I've had in years, in fact," was Sirius' tongue-in-cheek response.

"Ah, well." Davie nodded. "I suppose you don't want any company if you're looking to sleep, so I'll go kip on a kitchen counter or something. It can't be worse than being chained to a wall," Davie laughed quietly. "Well, good night, then --"

"Are you that determined to avoid me?" Sirius asked plainly, sitting on the armrest of the sofa next to Davie, also raising his arm to block her from standing. "All these years, I don't think a civil conversation is too much to ask."

For a moment, Davie was silent - the she sighed, raising her wand and pointing at a nearby candle. "_Incendio_," she muttered, casting a small plume of light into the darkened room. With the light, however, Sirius noted something he hadn't yet noticed since Davie's arrival: in the candlelight, a gold bracelet glinted on her wrist. Immediately, he reached out and held her wrist so quickly that in her surprise, she dropped her wand with a clatter.

"Fancy this old thing still fitting you after about fifteen years," Sirius said, locking eyes with a very surprised Davie as he recognized the bracelet he had given her the Christmas of their seventh year. His emotions at the site were mixed - the fact that she had worn it all this time, had kept in on her person even during days of being tortured, all of it seemed to say that he did stand a chance; the only thing that said he did not was in fact, Davie herself. "What are you trying to prove --"

"I'm not trying to prove anything," she said, yanking her wrist away and sitting on it as though hiding it undid anything that had transpired. "I have a life --"

"As an Auror?" Sirius interrupted heatedly, and suddenly his temper overcame his desire to make things right between himself and the woman he loved. "In Bulgaria? Is that the _life _you're talking about Davie? Because that life is _over_ now, so how does it --"

SMACK!

Davie's palm collided with Sirius' cheek, and he silenced himself immediately.

"_Bloody _-- Davie, I shouldn't have said that," he groaned; Davie glared at him darkly, her breaths heaving and furious. "But honestly, you know you can't go back to what you've been doing all these years --"

"I don't need _you_ to tell me that," Davie retorted, standing up and storming out of the receiving room, back to Regulus' old room; even a night spent at the risk of being murdered by Kreacher, Davie was sure, had to be better than this.

_A/N's_

_Uh oh, everyone's keeping a secret from Sirius about their pasts, and I think we know that keeping secrets is not something that bodes well. Though I think many of you guys will be able to tell what Davie's secret is - don't be angry with me!_

_Anyway, this was a really long chapter of reminiscing and fluff before anything really good happened, but I hope it wasn't too painful for you guys to read. Sorry for the delay - final exams prep has been killer. There might be one more long delay before my next chapter, but after that, I should be all clear with summer vacation!_

_I want to get this posted quickly, so I'm going to hold off on the review responses this time around. So I hope you enjoyed this chapter, even if it didn't end in a very Sirius-friendly manner. Until next time, which I hope will be less than a week from now, cheers!_


	33. Chapter 33

**Chapter Thirty-Three**

_July the Fifteenth, Nineteen Hundred Ninety Five_

The next day, Davie woke before the sun in the manner to which she was accustomed, to find that the house on Grimmauld Place was a bit more crowded than before with the arrival of Molly and Arthur Weasley's youngest son, Ronald, and another girl by the name of Hermione Granger. Davie made no move to pretend she had never heard of either of them. She had seen Ron a few times when he could barely walk, Hermione had been quite the object of gossip during her previous term at Hogwarts - and most of all, they were best friends with Harry James Potter.

Harry Potter. The Boy Who Lived. The Boy who would have been her godson.

It pained Davie particularly when, for the first time, Dumbledore arrived and requested that Sirius and Davie, especially, were to make sure that Ron and Hermione were not able to contact Harry - a move with which neither Sirius nor Davie agreed to begin with.

Davie felt particularly child-like again in the presence of Albus Dumbledore - Dumbledore had changed, it seemed, so little that it made it feel like they were still in school.

"After what has happened to you, I do not think it really needs to be asked," he said knowingly, placing both of his hands on Davie's shoulders and staring at her from behind the very same spectacles he'd always worn. "But I must do it for consistency's sake - you will, of course, understand," he added with a twinkle in his eye. "Are your loyalties fully with us, Davina?"

"As they have always been Prof --"

"_Albus_," he corrected with a wan smile. "I'm no longer your Headmaster. A side effect of your absence, I'm afraid, is that have yet to grow accustomed to regarding me as an equal."

"Never -- _Albus_," Davie said, as though Dumbledore's first name was something fragile which needed to be taken good care of. "But I must ask you, why aren't you able to bring Harry here your--"

"There are things," Dumbledore said in a distant, more somber voice, "that must be kept safe. As much as I would like to see to Mr. Potter's safekeeping personally, it is something I cannot do."

Sirius couldn't help but smirk a bit at the expression on Davie's face as Dumbledore departed to return to the school - preparations, after all, had to be made for the upcoming term. Davie's face looked remarkably similar in emotion to Hermione and Ron - fading, youthful defiance, resignation, and confusion. Sirius also inwardly hated that Davie's temperament was so similar to the way it had always been. Had she been completely different, perhaps he would have been able to forget that she was once _his_ Davie.

Hermione, however, seemed pleased to have found somewhat of a kindred spirit in Davie. Davina Maddux, as Remus was quick to tell Hermione, was probably one of the few who could boast their record-breaking amount of time spent studying.

"Terribly fascinating," Hermione nodded after she had asked Davie to share a story about her experiences working abroad; the frizzy-haired girl's hand itched as though she wished she had been taking notes. "An Auror -- I couldn't imagine it. My parents are _dentists. _Not a very interesting occupation," she explained, as though she were bashful about talking about their Muggle profession with Davie. Davie, however, smiled and clicked her tongue.

"Believe me, there's nothing wrong with a quiet way of life," Davie said with a sigh in which the nostalgia was only just tangible. "You know, I used to want to be a teacher," Davie pointed out, taking a seat on the sofa across from Hermione, who had for once put down her textbook and actually committed herself to a conversation with this woman.

"Brain like a Remembrall, that one," Sirius spoke up with a casual smirk, though he was sitting at an armchair by the fire with a glass of his choice drink in hand. Davie glanced at him, blinking as though she didn't believe that he was trying to be part of this conversation. It was, however, fair game considering that he knew her better than anyone. "Could always count on her to remember a date off the top of her head - Prongs and I told her a few times that she ought to replace Binns --"

"But I never really cared for History of Magic much. Not at all really, with the way Binns taught it," Davie said with a grudging smile at the memory. "Could never keep my eyes open in class, but I suppose all the reading did pay off."

"Come to think of it, Hermione," Sirius pointed out, gesturing toward the young girl. "She was quite a bit like you --"

"No, no," Davie said, waving a hand in casual dismissal. "I think she's a bit more like Lily. Naturally gifted, quite gossiped about," Davie added with an impish, youthful grin. "Quite the buzz about you and a certain Mr. Viktor Krum roundabout Bulgaria, Miss Granger."

"Oh!" Hermione said, going an endearing shade of scarlet - Davie noticed the girl's gaze drift. Hermione's attention quickly reverted back to the conversation at hand, though, when she realized that she was being looked at. "Yes, well --"

"Young love," Davie mused with a vague laugh, shaking her head.

"Yeah," Sirius said, causing Davie to hush immediately and look at him. "Young love."

"Excuse me," Davie said politely, standing up from the chair and scurrying somewhat uncomfortably out of the room and into the reading room, taking a seat in one of the antiquated, hand-hewn wooden chairs. It took her a moment to realize that she was not alone; a certain red-haired boy was sitting on a trunk at the edge of the room, being rather quiet as he thumbed through a copy of a popular Quidditch Magazine.

"D'you see this?" Ron said with a forced smile, looking at Davie hesitantly and nodding downward towards a photo of Harry on his Firebolt, zooming effortlessly through the sky. "'_The next Quidditch Star -- mentally tormented or not, that boy knows how to catch a Snitch'_. Fancy that. Everyone thinks Harry is insane, and he's still a star," Ron chuckled weakly. When he looked up, however, his laugh subsided as he noted the question expression on Davie's face. "I'm -- I'm not saying --" he stammered. "It's just that --"

"You know," Davie interrupted gently, though it felt strange to realize that she was going to be speaking as a grown woman, to _Molly Weasley's_ child. "When I was your age, the thing that frustrated me most was that everyone knew who I was for all the wrong reasons," she said with a knowing raise of her eyebrows, and Ron blinked at her as though he had just been splashed with cold water, a sure enough sign that Davie appeared to be on the right track.

"For probably my first five years at the school," Davie continued, stretching her arms casually over her head as though she were simply sharing an anecdote, "I was the girl always bickering with Sirius Black, the girl who always hung around Lily Evans -- the girl who was always a little less smart, less talented, less _everything_ than Lily Evans. It was always, '_Davie's good, but she's no Lily Evans' _for years," she said animatedly.

"W--what'd you do about it?"

"I became an Auror," Davie replied with a smooth laugh, getting up from her seat and having a seat next to Ron. "But I'm not saying you ought to go and do the same just to make a point. I just meant, I did something that no one thought I would, because it mattered to _me_. I figured, all the time I spent trying to just be an adequate version of everyone else would have been better spent being a superlatively excellent version of myself." She reached out and gave Ron a pat on the shoulder. "It's a delicate balance. Even I don't get it right a great deal of the time. "

With a lopsided grin, she stood up and made to leave when Ron cleared his throat, causing Davie to turn around with an arched eyebrow.

"Miss Maddux," he said, as though he were incredibly wary about asking this question to someone he barely knew - but if she understand his predicament with his friends, then, Ron figured, there must be a chance she would be able to mention this. "You wouldn't be able to give me any advice on -- on someone trying to date my sister, would you?"

"Sorry, Ron," Davie said with a slight chuckle, placing her hand on the doorknob while still looking towards him. "Only child, I'm afraid." She turned the doorknob and pushed the door open, only to find Sirius standing outside, and Hermione coming down the hallway as well, slipping past them. Glancing briefly over her shoulder at Ron, who gave Hermione a lukewarm greeting. Davie stepped out of the study and shut the door behind her. It seemed everyone was having dinner and conferring about Dumbledore's directions to all of them - Sirius was excluded like he always seemed to be; they explained it was to prevent him from being tempted to get involved, for the sake of his own safety. Now, however, that meant Davie and Sirius were alone in the corridor, save for the sound of the portrait of Walburga Black, grumbling around the corner.

"So," Davie said hesitantly, crossing her arms over herself and trying to block out the various sounds around her, including the faint murmur she could pick up from the kitchen, in order to try and focus on speaking with the man in front of her; Merlin knew it would take a good deal of effort. "Sirius -- about last night --"

"Which part?"

"Oh, you know already," Davie said in slight exasperation, resisting what felt like the very natural reaction of losing her temper with him. Losing one's temper with Sirius Black, Davie mused, had never been particularly difficult to do. "You know - the part where I slapped you."

"Ah." Sirius said with a gruff, forced chuckle, touching his hand to the side of his face, which thankfully bore no mark of Davie's outburst of anger the previous night. "_That_ part. You've gotten a bit stronger. They teach you to slap in Auror training as well?"

"I'm trying to apologize, you don't need to make me feel worse."

"You don't need to apologize." Sirius said, crossing his arms as well, leaning back against the wall behind him in a posture that was so reminiscent of their youth that it nearly caused the hairs on the back of Davie's neck to stand on end. "I guess it comes with old age that I'm tired of trying to convince you that we have anything left."

"Old age," Davie said with a chuckle, uncrossing her arms hesitantly and shaking her head - it occurred her that speaking to Sirius as though nothing had happened, as though nothing was _happening_, was almost painfully surreal. "Haven't thought for a long time that I'd be talking about it with you."

"Yeah," Sirius said vaguely, scratching the back of his neck - Davie inwardly cursed that all of his quirks and movements seemed to have remained the same after so many years. "I can't really say the same but we've been into detail on this, haven't we?"

Davie's face snapped upwards to look at Sirius, perhaps to argue again until she noticed that he wore a weak smile, and for the first time, regardless of how strange it felt, Davie reciprocated it. It felt a little bit right and a little bit wrong that they were amiably agreeing that the discussion was over, that that part of their lives were over, but the important part was that it seemed that an agreement between them had been reached.

* * *

_July the Twenty-Ninth, Nineteen Hundreed Ninety Five_

The idea of an adult Sirius Black and Davina Maddux being friends was a hard bite to swallow for everyone in the house at Grimmauld Place, but they were forced to believe it when in the days that followed the arrival of Hermione and the Weasley children, things between Davie and Sirius had reverted to a strange shadow of the way they had been before they had even started dating, many years ago.

"Sirius, pass the marmalade please --"

"You don't need marmalade, you need butter, look at you - you're skin and bones --"

"_No one asked you_!"

"Have they always been like this?" Hermione inquired hesitantly, tapping Remus Lupin on the forearm. Lupin raised a fist to his mouth and gave a chuckle.

"They were," he nodded. "For a very long time - I suppose things have come full circle."

The one good thing that came of it, everyone noticed, was that Sirius was a good deal less sour about being confined to the house, because Davie was under the same sort of house arrest, providing him with a constant companion with whom he could bicker as much as he pleased.

Even more to Sirius' relief was on a particularly stuffy summer day when they received a copy of a Muggle newspaper that depicted a very strange incident in a nearby farming town - in the midst of the hottest summer in decades, a wheat field in the East Devon countryside, near Ottery St. Catchpole where the Weasley family resided, had become frosted over, killing the entire crop.

"I do not think it is our duty," Snape drawled once everyone had finished passing around and reading the paper, "to do an onsite analysis of every unusual happening in the area --"

"I'd like to investigate _this_ one," Davie piped up resolutely, causing everyone to turn their heads to look at her - some with curiosity, some with pity, still others thinking she'd gone completely mad. "I'm still an _Auror_," she snapped in near outrage. "And I'm still a member of the Order - or did you rescue me just so I could be wall décor? I've been doing things like this for almost _fifteen_ years!"

"We can't let you just leave and risk being taken again," Remus said carefully. "It's only been a couple of weeks - we don't believe we were seen rescuing you, but your trail is still too hot. If something were to happen to you and we didn't even --"

"Sirius can come with me," Davie said suddenly - and Sirius' neck nearly snapped as he turned towards Davie in surprise. In response, she merely shot him a wink before continuing to speak to Remus. "It's a _good_ plan," she explained. "You lot have all been seen, everyone knows you're in the Order. I, on the other hand, have been practically non-existent here for over a decade."

Davie raised her wand and tapped it to her head, changing her hair, even her eyebrows, to an unfamiliar shade of dirty blonde, smiling smartly. "No one's going to ask any questions about a woman taking her dog for a walk," she said resolutely. "And you have to admit, this is an incident worth investigating. Please. _Please - I'm starting to get cabin fever in this house."_

Scooting her wooden kitchen chair closer to Sirius and placing her hand on his shoulder as she looked around to everyone else, Davie allowed the idea to set in with everyone - and one by one, they showed marked signed of resignation.

"Excellent," Davie said brightly, standing up and giving Sirius' shoulder a sharp tug out of his seat as well, tucking her wand back into her pocket. She yanked Sirius towards the door - he transformed into his dog form as they hurried across the room towards the front corridor - and before leaving only briefly paused to call over her shoulder. "We'll be back before you even have a chance to miss us."

"Dear me," Molly Weasley said, exhaling heavily and shaking her head, looking around at the others. "There they go again - this all seems very nostalgic, those two running off that way."

"If this is anything like old times," Remus pointed out, a very uncharacteristic humor lacing his tone, "then we can expect them back half-clothed a bit hot and bothered, can't we?"

"Sorry," Ron piped up from his seat. "You mean, Miss Maddux and Sirius are --"

"Oh, come on, Ron," Hermione chuckled, jabbing him slightly with her elbow. "Even I could tell that there was something between them."

"Oh, yeah," Ron said, rolling his eyes. "Well, not all of us are geniuses like you, 'Mione --"

"I was only just saying!"

Everyone at the table shared a secret grin at Ron an Hermione's all-too-reminiscent bickering, save for Severus Snape who had long dismissed himself to the study in disgust at what to him was an inappropriate show of frivolity.

* * *

_A/N's_

_I know, it's been an uncharacteristically long time since my last update - which is why I'm going to skip the review responses for now and actually get this put up. It's been a very hectic time at school for me, and I'm also struggling to finish up a very delicate scene in an upcoming chapter. Until next time! Cheers!_


	34. Chapter 34

**Chapter Thirty Four**

"I suppose you're just dying, aren't you, _Snuffles_? You and your fur coat," said an almost believably blonde-haired Davie, staring down at Snuffles, the large black dog trotting alongside her better known as Sirius Black - his own wand was wrapped and almost completely hidden in his long, bushy tail. She gave a slight chuckle, looking at Sirius panting in the unusually hot summer air. "Put that slobbery tongue back where it came from, would you? We're almost there."

They seemed to be wading through an overgrown field of wheat and grasses, the latter being waist-high to Davie, who had to take comically high steps to practically wade through the dry brush. The area around them seemed to have been completely devastated by the drought and severe heat of the summer

"Are you really going to gripe about the weather? You're the one who was itching to get out of that house - get it? _Itching_?" Davie joked, continuing to tromp through the grass. "You know - your fleas and - _bloody hell_."

Davie stopped in her tracks so abruptly that Sirius hardly had time to react, running into the back of Davie's legs, but even in the form of a dog, it was quickly clear to him that there was something amiss. The brown-yellow sea of dried wheat gave way to a large mass of brown-black, withered plant growth for quite a few yards. Davie stepped into the dead plant to feel an unpleasant, damp squish under her feet. The ground was wet, as though a coat of ice or snow had just melted off of it in the dead of summer.

"I'm going to poke around here a bit, see if there's any sign of what happened here. " Davie said, pulling her wand out of the back pocket of her trousers. "Don't move, Sirius. Sit - stay. Keep and eye out for - _ouch_!"

Sirius had nipped at the back of Davie's ankle, causing her to yelp in pain and drop her wand, which he caught in his mouth while Davie glared angrily at him. However, before Davie could break into another tirade, the contents of which Sirius could have already predicted, she paused, her expression shifting. She felt the skin on her arms prickle at the sensation of a slight breeze - but any breeze at all had been unheard of for weeks now. There was a certain coldness in the air that was unpleasant and suffocating - and for both Davie and Sirius, unwelcome and familiar - Davie shivered as the temperature seemed to fall lower and lower.

"Give. Me. My. Wand." Davie hissed quietly, but her voice was more urgent and fearful than it was angry. "Sirius, _please._" Sirius released her wand into her hand, and she gripped it tightly as her eyes darted around shiftily. "Maybe you should go - if someone's here, they shouldn't -"

But before she could finished something large and black swooped from the sky, swirling around them ominously as it was joined by two others - dementors. Davie pointed her wand at each of them but was seized, frozen in place with a strange sort of fear that she had not felt for a long time. She was momentarily shaken to her senses, though, when in a fraction of a second, Sirius was standing next to her as a human, his hand pointed as well.

"_RUN_!" he yelled authoritatively, grabbing Davie by the crook of her arm and breaking into a sprint. "Can't you run any faster?"

"Are you insane?" Davie yelled at Sirius as they continued running with the dementors close behind them, moving so quickly that they seemed to be slicing through the air like large knives; the tall grasses left small cuts up and down Davie's bare arms. "You can't be in human form around them, they'll recognize you!"

"Well, I couldn't very well have you ride on my back!" Sirius yelled. "For once, Davie, stop bloody arguing and - _Davie_!"

Davie let out another cry as her foot caught on a stone, twisting at an awkward angle and causing her to fall onto the ground, her arm slipping out of Sirius' grasp. Immediately, out of reflex for both of them, they pointed their wands at the figures and yelled in unison, "_Expecto Patronum!_"

Two white, glistening, indistinct masses emerged from the wands and shot towards the dementors, shifting clearly into an owl and a large dog as they charged forward, pushing the dementors backwards - Davie's arm, however, began wavering and even over the whistling of the wind that the dementor's seemed to bring into the still night, Sirius could hear her voice, mumbling tremulously.

"_Mum - Dad - they can't be -_"

They were getting to her, Sirius cursed inwardly. The dementors were forcing the memory of her parents' death on her.

"DAVIE!" he yelled, desperate to catch her attention and shake her from the stupor that the dementors were forcing upon her. Then, in a seemingly out of place choice of words, he called out, "_Do you hate my earring that much_?"

Something about the question seemed to jolt back into place in Davie's consciousness - her mind was overtaken by the memory of herself and Sirius, taking care of little Tonks as though they were one complete family. Her patronus suddenly surged forward with a fervor it had not possessed even when she had first cast it, and with a shrill, piercing cry into the night air, the dementors shot off, away from the pair. After a few moments of silence, the dog retreated back into Davie's wand, the owl into Sirius'.

"There you go again - you'd think a decade of being an Auror would have made you somewhat less clumsy," Sirius grumbled, tucking his wand away into the fold of the large coat that his dog fur transformed into in his human form. He knelt down next to her to help her to her feet, only to have her swat his hand away weakly, staring at him with eyes full of questions.

"An owl?" she asked, unsure of how to react - her mind shot back to a particular conversation in their fourth year. It had seemed so insignificant, so normal at the time, but now…

* * *

"_So is everything coming along on the you-know-what?" asked a fifteen-year-old Davina Maddux, sitting down on the arm of the common room couch occupied by Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew. Across the table, Sirius Black and James Potter were lounging on the opposite sofa, their feet propped lazily on the table between the seats. It was rather fortunate indeed that Davie had come to them with the suggestion of being Animagi for Remus' sake, as it was something they'd not have come up with on their own at the time._

"_Oh yeah," Sirius said haughtily, casting the girl a grin which she did not even acknowledge. "Coming along wonderfully. As if you had any reason to doubt it, Davie."_

"_Right," she responded, rolling her eyes in exasperation - she may very well have been good friends with the other boys, except for the fact that it would have required her to be around Sirius Black, whose company she could not always tolerate. Clearing her throat and turning her attention back to Remus, she placed her book down and continued talking, taking particular care to ignore Sirius. _

"_You know, I sort of wish I'd gotten in on this with you," Davie said casually, before adding with a slightly pained laugh, "but you know I'd botch it up terribly. You know," she lowered her voice considerably. "I'd be an owl."_

"_An owl!" James chuckled haughtily. "Why? Fancy a career as a mail carrier, Maddux?"_

"_I'd think of you more as an parrot. Or better yet, an elephant," Sirius chuckled raucously. "Loud and clumsy and always stepping over everything."_

"_Complete gits, the both of you," Davie retorted, narrowing her eyes in attempt to looking threatening, though the attempt failed as a laugh escaped her lips. "Owls are wise, and resourceful, and useful - and, you know, enigmatic."_

"_Exactly," Sirius chuckled, balling up a piece of parchment and chucking it towards Davie, who swatted it out of the air and threw it back at him. "And how exactly does that apply to you?"_

* * *

"That's your patronus?" Davie asked, and there was a slight sharpness to her voice as though she had just been a bit offended. "But - but -"

"Don't even start - are you really going to be a hypocrite about _your_ patronus?A dog?" Sirius said, his grip on Davie's upper arm a bit tighter than was necessary. "Or did your mum and dad have a pet puppy that you failed to tell me about? Come _on,_" he said, giving her arm another tug.

"It's twisted," Davie hissed, a grimace crossing her face as Sirius attempted to pull her up, only to have her ankle give way beneath any weight placed on it. She set herself back on the ground with a pained expression. "Just - just give me a moment."

Davie let out a breath and rolled up the leg of her pants, looking at her ankle; it appeared a bit swollen. Only now, when they were no longer running, did Sirius realize that after the run-in with the dementors, Davie was terribly pale. He knelt next to her again, with a slight pang of guilt for being so brash with her, but before he was able to speak, she spoke up.

"You alright?" she asked in a near-mumble, not able to look at Sirius. "It can't be easy, being around - well, you know - those," she stammered unsurely. "It would've been safer if you'd stayed a dog -"

"Excuse me, which of us is pale as a sheet right now?" Sirius retorted in exasperation, though he felt a sort of pleasant swelling in his chest at the fact that, however grudgingly, Davie had shown some type of concern for him.

"Both of us - you haven't left Grimmauld Place in weeks, so you can't expect to have seen much sunlight, can you?" Davie said with a weak smirk, pulling out her wand and pointing it at her own ankle, conjuring up a makeshift wrap to support her weight. She reached out and pushed herself upwards using Sirius' shoulder, testing her foot slowly.

"Some things never change - you always enjoy giving me a good scare, don't you? Tripping and falling at the most inopportune moments," Sirius pointed out with an impish smirk, before he could help himself. Davie turned around slowly, blinking almost incredulously - he could not keep doing that, she thought. She simply could not promise that her resolve would last if _this _Sirius continued to act so identically to the Sirius she had always known - always _loved_.

"It - it really hurts," Davie said hesitantly, gesturing lamely towards her injured ankle. "If I try to Apparate like this, I'm probably going to splinch myself ten ways and then you'll never be able to put me back together again -"

"Alright, Humpty Dumpty, I'm receiving the hint," Sirius smirked, and before she could ask for clarification, he strode over and swept her off of her feet - and before she could protest, she felt the familiar tug in her stomach area and she held fast around Sirius' neck with a yelp as they apparated back into the receiving room at Grimmauld Place.

Remus Lupin gave a chuckle as they caught sight of Davie clinging tightly to Sirius, until they saw the pained expression on Davie's face when she was set down on the closest seat - by this point, it had swollen up to the point that Davie seemed to be nauseated by the pain. Normally, she had a high tolerance for it, but having been weakened considerably by the happenings of the past months, paired with the fact that running into dementors had a stronger effect on her than even she was willing to admit, it was excruciating.

"_Dementors_," she managed to grimace as though the words itself were a curse. "In East Devon - something about this seems very much amiss."

"You must be delirious from the heat," Snape added derisively - ever since Davie had recovered from the initial state of her arrival, even she was not spared from his condescension. "In your state, I would not be surprised if this was yet _another _egregious error in your judgment, Merlin knows it wouldn't be the first -"

"_Severus!_" Davie interrupted in a low, threatening hiss, for reasons Sirius neither knew not cared about.

"I think I know a dementor when I see one better than anyone in this room, _Snivellus_," Sirius sneered, poised for another lengthy attack on his childhood nemesis. "So while your input is valuable to everyone else, I personally value it only as much at the snot dribbling from your nose -"

"Sirius, please," Davie said, her hand jetting out and grasping Sirius' wrist, her eyes glinting with the same reprimanding spark as in their youth, when Sirius overstepped his bounds in bullying Snape. "This isn't helping."

"Are you sure of what you saw?" Remus asked, approaching Davie carefully. "Maybe you're just mistaken, I'm sure -"

"Remus, really," Davie interrupted, crossing her arms. "You remember the last time the whole lot of you insisted I was wrong, don't you? About Sirius -" she snapped, before she froze midsentence at the guilty looks that crossed most of their faces; this was an issue that still remained unresolved. Davie recalled the day she had left, how she had resolved to never speak to any of them until they had atoned for the way they treated her when she'd insisted upon Sirius' innocence.

"Anyway," she said, though her voice was clearly more stuff than it had been moments earlier; Sirius, all of a sudden, became very aware that he was not the only one who had felt betrayed by all of his friends for their lack of faith, and that in Davie's case, it was all because of _him_. "I _know_ what I saw."

"_If_ that is the case," Snape spoke up - it seemed strange that to Sirius that Snape, too, had dropped the confrontation at Davie direction. "Then our situation is more delicate than we first believed - dementors roaming the countryside is a problematic circumstance indeed. I'm sure you'd all agree that it is of even _more_ urgency that Black be confined to Headquarters," he added with a nasty grin, and to Sirius' great chagrin, everyone seemed, in fact, to agree.

In any case, the evening was growing late and everyone was retiring to bed - Davie opted to remain in the armchair and allow her ankle to rest the Muggle way before taking magic to it in the morning.

"Really, I only wanted to avoid Kreacher," Davie said, trying to elicit at least a slight laugh from Sirius. "I think I've had enough unpleasantness for one evening without that little darling."

"You're going to give me a heart attack one of these days," Sirius grumbled, obviously displeased that this may very well have been the last time he'd be allowed to leave him own home. "You know, you're more trouble than you're worth."

At this, Davie fell silent, glancing downward abashedly - and Sirius suddenly felt quite a git indeed, without being told. Davie had always had a way of eliciting that reaction in him, and it seemed this too remained unchanged. Sirius had only meant to intimate his frustration at the fact that he could not for the life of him stop acting like a man whose actions were dictated by love, considering that was in fact what he was. The idea of Davie not being worth any amount of effort, however vast, always had and always remain unthinkable for Sirius Black. He moved over and knelt next to the chair, forcing himself into Davie's line of sight.

"I'm only pulling your leg, Davie," he said with a lopsided shadow of a smirk. "I've always appreciated how _difficult _you can be, haven't I?"

Davie, however, wordlessly whipped out her wand and extinguished the light in the room, shifting so that her back was to Sirius and going to sleep. It wasn't until the next morning, when Davie woke before everyone else in the house with the first beams of sunlight through the shutters, that she realized that Sirius had slept the entire night on the floor next to the sofa. Her anger and offense melted, and while he slept, she limped slowly to the kitchen, fetched a tray bearing two goblets of pumpkin juice and two slices of toast slathered in apple butter, and placed them down on the receiving room table. Sirius awoke to Davie eating silently and not looking at him, but nodding silently to the table where a small scrap of parchment leaned against the goblet of pumpkin juice with his name in Davie's telltale scrawl. A lopsided smile crossed his weatherworn face at the gesture; it had been a very long time indeed since anyone had prepared a meal for him and only him, and the fact that it was Davie made it only all the more striking.

They did not bicker for the remainder of the day, and after this incident, things appeared to go back to normal - or as normal as they could have been under present circumstances for one Sirius Black and one Davina Maddux.

* * *

_A/N's_

_Another ridiculous delay, I know - thank you everyone for understanding and still following, despite the fact that I've been unable to update once or twice a week like I used to - two weeks isn't as bad as only having an update every few months, right? _

_Thank you to __**Wateranddarkness666**__ for reviewing the last chapter, as well as everyone who subscribed or favorited the story - this story has officially become the most favorited out of all my stories, and I'm absolutely tickled! I consider it a month-early birthday gift, hee! Until next time, cheers!_


	35. Chapter 35

**Chapter Thirty Five**

_August the , Nineteen Hundred Ninety Five_

"Davie, you don't need to worry, it's just Harry," Sirius said, patting her shoulder hesitantly as they sat alone at the kitchen table, awaiting the others, save for those who had been sent to Little Whinging to fetch Harry Potter after he received correspondence from the Ministry.

"_Just_ Harry - just my best friend's son who I've never met or lifted a hand to help at any point in his working memory," Davie moaned in a fearful, almost frenetic tone. "Just Harry who I've had to keep his best friends from telling him too much. I've had to stop you once or twice as well, who here looks like the villain?"

"I'm sure he'll -" Sirius began, but he quickly cut himself off. While he hated admitting to Davie that the way his mind conducted itself was in essence mostly the same as the way it had when they were children, he did in fact have to concede that he foresaw Harry's anger at all of them for the sheer fact that it was the same way he himself would react. It was the same way Sirius still reacted to being excluded from Order meetings in his own home, to being prevented weeks ago from helping rescue Davie from Bulgaria.

"It - it doesn't matter, I guess," Davie said, clearing her throat. "I deserve every bit of whatever anger he's going to feel. What matters is that they get him back from those terrible relatives of his. Excuse me," Davie said, getting up from her seat just as Severus and Molly were entering the dining room. She nudged past them quietly and retreated back to Regulus' bedroom, leaving Molly to stare at Sirius distastefully.

"You never could stop upsetting the girl," Molly said, busying herself with pouring a few glasses of water to place around the table for everyone to arrive. "Ever since you were young - either snogging one another senseless or tearing one another's eyes out -"

"I suppose any time she gets upset, it's automatically on me then," Sirius growled - despite his innocence, Molly Weasley had never grown particularly close to Sirius Black, nor did she regard him as a man of particularly good qualities. "Alright then."

Davie, meanwhile, was wracked with an almost inexplicable sort of tension and anxiety for hours - she wanted to meet Harry, to so what had become of the little boy she had last seen in person the night that the Potters had learned of the prophecy, the little boy she had bounced on her knee while he waited for his mother. But Harry, she knew, was no longer that little boy, just like Davie was no longer that same young woman. What if, Davie wondered, Harry wanted to know why Davie had never been there to care for him?

The question hounded Davie for hours - even when she already heard the others arrive, heard the unfamiliar voice that she knew had to have been Harry's. Davie's chest tightened at the prospect of being so close from her best friend's beloved son, who stood no chance of remembering her.

When Davie finally managed to exit the room without feeling like she would fall over from anxiety, she stepped into the drawing room where everyone was gathered, including Harry - and it appeared that the Weasley twins, Fred and George, had already managed to grate on everyone's tempers.

Sirius looked up at the door when the petite woman moved through the doorframe and clapped a hand on Harry's shoulder, nodding towards the door.

"Harry - if you'll spare a moment," Sirius said with a slight chuckle as Davie cleared her throat, approaching slowly as the room settled slightly to stare. "I present to you, Davina Maddux. Order of the Phoenix. Order of Merlin, third class -"

"That's not necessary," Davie said in a somewhat shaky voice, placing her hand on the table near Harry, looking at him with vague, blinking eyes. "Harry," she said, carefully addressing, though he couldn't understand why she acted so strange around him. Not that Harry was not accustomed to people treating him differently - it was simply that there was something different in the way Davie regarded him. She didn't round on him as though she were the anxious fan of the Boy Who Lived. There was something very emotional and apprehensive about the way she stood next to him, drumming her fingers hesitantly on the worn wood dinner table. She couldn't think of anything to say to him -

Thankfully, Molly Weasley provided a topic of discussion.

"Thank heavens you're here," she said, her face reddened in evident exasperation. "I was only just telling Sirius and Remus that it was a terrible idea to tell the boy -"

"-he's hardly a boy anymore, Molly, look at him!"

"Sirius, perhaps you think it's admissible to deprive him of what little childhood he may be able to get," Molly interrupted, her frustration with Sirius' unchanging character now very clear; Harry, for one, looked as though he were struggling to hold his temper out of respect for Molly Weasley, whom Davie knew had always been a very motherly figure towards him. "It's not time -"

"It's never _time_ - if you wait until it's _time _-"

"Davina, dear," Molly interrupted, her warm eyes turning towards the woman expectantly. "Please remind them that it's for the best that we wait until Harry is ready -"

"_They _won't wait until he's ready, Molly," Davie spoke up in a stoic voice, deeper than usual - in their youth, this was the voice only when she was bringing up bad news from the Ministry; Sirius had come to call this her _Auror voice_. Oddly enough, not until right now did it sound so strikingly identical to the way it had sounded fifteen years ago. "Lily, the boys, and I were only two years older when the Order started than Harry is now and the boy's been through ten times more than any of us had been through at that point," Davie continued, crossing her arms and locking eyes with Molly. "If we don't tell him the danger he's in, he won't know until he's in the middle of it again."

Harry gaped at Dave as though she were some sort of unforeseen savior, as though she had just strolled into the room like some sort of waifish wanderer and immediately leapt to his defense. Molly, however, regarded the petite woman with a mix of disbelief and disappointment.

"Marauders forever, then, I suppose," she said in a stiff voice; Arthur Weasley immediately placed a hand on his wife's shoulder placatingly. "I shouldn't have expected you to contradict them. I didn't think being an Auror for so long would have made you so foolhardy, Davina," she said, before walking out of the room, her husband close behind. Davie wrung her hands slightly, glancing up at Remus, who gave her a calming nod.

"You're an _Auror._" Harry repeated, blinking at the woman, attempting to place her, to analyze her in any way he could. She gave a cough-like laugh and glanced at him with a reserved nod. "Who - how do you -"

"My stars, you're the spitting image of James," Davie said with a cluck of her tongue. "Except for -"

"My eyes, I've heard," Harry couldn't help but snap irately - it had been said so many times that it seemed more like a trite adage than a discovery for him now. Davie, however, chuckled and shook her head.

"The eyes, of course," she said, as though she had forgotten something absurdly obvious. "But I was going to say your ears - perfect ears, not awkward and ungainly like mine. I lost count of how many times I told your mother I wish I had her perfect ears so I wouldn't look like it elephant when I wore earrings. I suppose it happens when you're best friend, you notice the most obscure things about one another -"

"You were my mother's best friend?" Harry interrupted, looking at the woman with a sort of urgency that apparently alarmed her. "When? How long? Why haven't I ever met you?"

"You have," Davie said with a pained smile - Sirius face fell at the sight of Davie being faced so abruptly with the very thing she dreaded most. "Though I know it was too long ago for you to remember. We were all very close -"

"Then where'd you go?" Harry interrupted suspiciously. Sirius placed a hand on his shoulder to stop him, but he paid little heed, keeping his gaze focused on the woman in front of him. Davie, however, appeared to be having trouble formulating words. She had thought of this day many times; she had admittedly even rehearsed her explanation to her satisfaction - but a scripted, cold, flat explanation did not seem to be good enough to present to Lily and James' son, not after everything that had happened.

It was Remus who finally spoke up, noticing how the color drained quickly from Davie's face.

"She left to work in Bulgaria," Remus said simply, compelling Harry to turn and face him. "About a year after your parents died. I suppose it was somewhat our fault that she left," he continued, casting an apologetic glance in Davie's direction. "We treated her unkindly - never intentionally. But suffice it to say, she was not the one who abandoned anyone in their time of need."

At this, both Harry and Sirius looked rather curious - neither of them, after all, had been present at the time Remus was referring to. Harry was already with the Dursleys, and Sirius was in Azkaban. Even Davie appeared surprised at Remus' admission; he had spoken apologetically on the subject before, but never with any specificity.

"I suppose I owe you an explanation," he said with a weak smile towards Harry and Sirius. "Very well…"

* * *

_Davie Maddux had not left her study in days - she hardly ate or slept, and surely hadn't seen sunlight in all that time. Her desk was strewn with photographs and news clippings, and notes scribbled on parchment then scratched out repeatedly. Thus was the state in which Remus Lupin found his friend when he appeared to check on her._

"_What are you doing?" he asked, shaking his head disapprovingly. "Davie, why can't you accept -"_

"_Lily and James and Peter have only been dead for three months and you already want to forget about giving them justice," Davie said groggily, the dark bags under her eyes eerily pronounced in the dim lighting of the room, She looked as though she was going to collapse and fall asleep on her papers at any moment._

"_This isn't justice," Remus said flatly. "We know what happened, Davie, why can't you just accept -"_

"_Accept that Sirius did this?" Davie said ferociously, standing up and leaning across the table. "When I saw him every single day leading up to that night? When we fell asleep telling one another how much we were worried about Lily and James? Sirius wouldn't lie -"_

"_Davie, you're driving yourself mad!" Remus said, leaning across the desk as well and looking his friend in the eye, desperate to get through to her. "You spend all your time obsessing over Sirius and forgetting that all of us even exist! Maybe you haven't found anything to prove him innocent because there is nothing to find -"_

"_Some friend you are!" Davie said shrilly, shoving a stack of papers off of the desk so that they flew and arced weakly before floating to the ground with a rustle. "You're going to give up on Sirius that quickly -"_

"_YOU'RE MAD, DAVIE! PETER IS DEAD! " Remus said, reaching out and taking Davie by __the shoulders. "And Sirius killed him, what about that -"_

"_Get out." Davie said flatly, shoving his hands off of her shoulders coldly, her face going stony and emotionless. "If you're going to treat me like I'm insane, get out of my home."_

_

* * *

_

Remus' anecdote, it seemed, had struck a very delicate chord with everyone in the room - Davie had been forced to take a seat, suddenly looking very pale and close to tears. Sirius had been listening to Remus the entire time, but was staring at Davie almost unblinkingly. She had gone through all of that for his sake, because she wanted to remain loyal to him? She had stood by and let everyone turn their backs on her? This was the reason she could no longer go back to the way they used to be?

"Cat's out of the bag now, isn't it?" Davie said with a weak laugh, looking down at her hands. "I - well, a lot of things happened during that time that I'm not proud of. I couldn't face it anymore so I left," she explained weakly before looking at Harry. "I felt - well, that's not important," she said, waving her hand dismissively. "I made a mistake as well - I put being an Auror first, and because of it, I wasn't here -"

"The night my parents died?" Harry inquired - Davie made no verbal reply. The expression on her face was confirmation enough, and at the mention of the night, Sirius' brow furrowed as though he were remembering something very distant, very repressed.

"Digby," he spoke up, causing Davie to bristle slightly as she looked at him; this was clearly something she did not wish to dwell on either. "You left to find Digby - did you -"

"He wasn't in Bulgaria. It was all a ruse," Davie said stiffly, unable now to meet Sirius' gaze, ashamed of the fact that the reason she had left him alone, the reason she hadn't been there to attempt to talk sense into him and prevent him from being present at the scene of the crime he had been framed for, had all been a hoax. "He was found five years later, irreversibly Obliviated. He's still in St. Mungo's," Davie recited as though she were delivering a report.

Even Harry seemed visibly uncomfortable at all of the revelations all once - especially because there was a great deal about their connection to Davina Maddux that he did not yet understand.

"But - but you all are friends now," Harry said, seized by a sudden feeling of worry brought about by recent events. Would a rift form between himself and Ron and Hermione because they were growing older, beginning to keep things from one another? "Just like before -"

"Heavens no." Sirius said, causing everyone else to turn their attention very quickly to him, and before Davie could make any motion to censor him, he continued, "We're all friends now, but as far as Davie goes, that's not all -"

"Sirius, he doesn't need to -"

"No," Harry interrupted resolutely. "I want to know everything. You were my mother's best friend, weren't you? Well, then I deserve to know about you as well."

"They were engaged." Remus piped in - and Davie let out a breath so prolonged hat she was like a balloon with its air being let out. There was a brief flash of grievance at the very blunt admission, followed by a sense of relief at the fact that she did not need to say it herself.

"Were." Harry repeated. "So you two - you cut things off when Sirius went to Azkaban -"

"I don't recall cutting things off," Sirius said offhandedly. "So to the extent of my knowledge, the present tense is more appropriate -"

"Sirius, please," Davie said, her jaw tense. "It's been over a decade, our main concern is _Harry_ right now. Our godson is going to a _hearing_ at the Ministry and I'm completely helpless to do anything because I've been told I need to -"

"Now you say _our_ godson," Sirius said, unable to repress a haughty shadow of a smirk. "Just moments before he arrived you said you weren't entitled to referring to him as such because you and I -"

"Are you really going to twist my words, Sirius?" Davie huffed, brow furrowed in frustration. "Are we really going to argue like this in front of Harry -"

"Were they always like this?" Harry interrupted loudly, glancing over at Lupin with an arched eyebrow. Remus gave a chuckle when Davie quickly became quiet, a great deal of color appearing in her pale face.

"Always."

* * *

_A/N's_

_And finally, Harry has arrived! I'm sorry again for the delay - I could really use a course in time management and I don't blame any of you if you'd like to throw rocks at me for make you all wait. Within the next couple of chapters, we'll speak a bit more with Harry. We're also going to see some developments with Sirius and Davie, and a temporary return to Hogwarts. _

_I apologize for the slight differences between what's happening in the story and in the actual text of Order of the Phoenix, but I promise you, I have this all planned out! Just trust me!_

_Thank you to **obsession-iz-a-good-thing**_**_, __AuntMo_**_, _**_exaigon_**_, _**_jekyllhyde67_**_, _**_Sarapha_**_, and _**_JohnnyStormsGirl_**_ for your subscriptions and feedback between the last update and this one. I'm glad you guys stumbled across my story and took an interest, even though I haven't been updating as often as usual. Until next time, cheers!_


	36. Chapter 36

**Chapter Thirty-Six**

In the days that followed before Harry's hearing, it turned out that he was far too upset with Hermione and Ron to spend quite as much time with them as he had so wanted to, just days before - he was, understandably, rather sullen and was not one for much conversation.

"Sirius," Davie said, walking uninvited into to his room with her arms crossed, looking very concerned. "I can hear everything going on in this house, and I haven't heard Harry say a word for two hours. At that age, you and James couldn't keep your mouths shut for two _minutes_ -"

"Have you tried speaking to him?" Sirius said with a chuckle, chucking a Muggle magazine he'd been reading onto a bedside table. "You act like you're terrified of the boy."

"I'm not terrified of Harry," Davie huffed, uncrossing her arms and placing them on her hips. "I'm - well, what am I supposed to do? Sit down next to him and say, 'Oy, Potter, I know you've known me for all of two days but do you fancy having a chat with me even though you refuse to speak with your friends that you've known for four years?' - he'll think I'm mad."

"Aren't you?"

Davie pursed her lips and rolled her eyes, an expression which made Sirius grin broadly. It was so familiar, so natural - it could not be said that there was any sort of ease between them, but this too was a sign that for whatever reason, things were reverting to a very familiar state.

"You've kept a very pretty face for fifteen years now, don't risk it sticking that way _now_," Sirius said, his smile shifting to a very clear smirk, which only served to aggravate Davie further. "I know for a fact that Harry is sitting by himself in the guest quarters at this very moment while the others are cleaning house. I'd recommend you get to know the boy a little better before becoming completely mortified of him."

Davie wasn't sure why she was so easily convinced, but within minutes, she found herself taking small hesitant steps towards Harry's room - she rapped her knuckles on the side of the door and peered in at Harry, again seized by a very harsh sense of hesitation as far as starting a conversation.

"I was about to look for you." Harry said flatly, and in Davie's surprise, her mouth dropped open slightly before she was able to conceal it. She walked in and sat on a trunk across from Harry's bed and gestured for him to go on. "I want to hear more about my mum."

Davie let out a small breath and nodded - the topic of Lily Evans Potter, at least, was something that she was able to talk about. "Well -"

"And I don't want to hear about her marks," Harry snapped abruptly. Though he enjoyed any stories he could get, he was tired of hearing about legends, as though they weren't real at all. "Or the fact that I have her eyes, or the fact that she was nice to everyone. I want to know things about her as a person. Everyday things. Real things. I don't know want to just know things everyone knows."

Real things. Even better, Davie thought as a small smile settled onto her face. She nodded and folded her hands into her lap, leaning forward slightly. "Real things. She was allergic to Ice Mice - I know because our roommate Mary gave her a box. She was completely smitten with a Muggle singer by the name of Andy Gibb, and the first gift she ever gave your father was, very predictably, a comb for that hair of his. She didn't know how to jump rope. Before she and your father took you into hiding, she was considering becoming an intern, and she wanted to be the first Muggleborn member of the Wizengamot…"

Harry was in awe, and for perhaps the first time during his entire stay, he bore no sign of brooding or angsting; he simply was hanging on whatever Davie said. Suddenly, his mother did not feel like a figure in a dream, a photograph, or a fleeting glimpse into a mirror of one's deepest desires. Suddenly, his mother seemed very much a real person.

"I suppose the war ruined your life as well, then?" he asked, attempting to gain back some of the stony composure he had been maintaining in recent days. Even if this woman had done nothing personally for Harry to dislike, there was still the fact that she, like everyone else in the Order, had been conspiring to keep him out of the loop. "It killed my mum and dad, and it split up Sirius and you."

A side of Davie's jaw clenched, and she shook her head, letting out a weak laugh. "You're like your mother that way too," she said in a considerably softer voice. "She thought I ought to have married him, in case the chance never came again, and she never let me live it down that I refused -"

"So you're not in love with him anymore?"

"That's not the only question that matters," Davie said, shaking her head and sighing quietly. "I don't think there's any girl out there who doesn't want to get married and live happily ever after with the man who sweeps them off their feet - but I had to protect him. I'm not happy, but I have no regrets either. I know you're not a child, Harry. I know _you _understand that."

Harry wasn't sure whether to be angry that this woman was assuming things about him after knowing him for a matter of days without even really speaking to him until today, or to feel comforted by the fact that she didn't need anything more than to see him in order to know things that were very much true.

"All your life you've _had_ to do things." Davie continued. "Ever since you learned about what happened to your parents, there have been things you have a _duty_ to do that take on a path very far away from what you want. Am I correct?" she asked, raising her eyebrows slightly, her gaze suddenly knowing and wizened to the point that she nearly resembled a young, female version of Professor Dumbledore.

"Everyone says your mother was the careful one," Davie said, leaning forward so that her elbows rested on her knees. "But I knew her better - you know, I only remember your father being truly upset with her _once_. The Order left her at home for a fight. She came anyway - your father didn't show it much, but he was infuriated. That was the day we found out about - well, about _you_," Davie said with a sad, nostalgic smile.

All of this still felt so surreal - weeks ago, Davie had forced herself to forget this part of her life, to forget about Sirius and Lily and James and Harry. She had taught herself to see them only as news stories, as whispers from a past which she no longer thought of. Now, here she was, speaking to Harry about the life that suddenly and very willingly came rushing back.

"Am I going to be like you?" Harry asked suddenly, snapping Davie back to reality. "Not that - not that anything's wrong with _you_ as a person, Davie, but… you're not young anymore. I'd like to be happy when I'm your age."

"You will be," Davie said with a weak laugh. "Even at the cost of my life, I promise you, you will _not_ turn out like me. But you'll want to get some rest now," Davie said chidingly, and though Harry concealed it, a slight shiver ran down his spine. That, he thought, was the way he had always thought a mother would sound, the way that Molly Weasley spoke him. With Davie, however, there was a strange feeling in knowing that she was his mother's best friend - and though he was in no mood to admit it, he realized that he trusted this woman now like he trusted Sirius. "Arthur will be taking you to your hearing tomorrow and if you look like a runaway who's not been fed or rested, they'll tear you to bits."

"They'll want to tear me to bits anyway."

"No, they'll want to stab you in the back, there's a difference," Davie said, leaning backwards slightly with a smirk she could not contain - Harry then saw what Sirius must have seen in her when they were children. "Would you - _oh_, I ought to be helping Molly with dinner." she said, glancing up at the clock with a wrinkle of her nose. She stood up, smoothing out the fronts of the slightly boyish workpants she had a habit of wearing. "I'll see you at dinner, if you're not going to -"

"I'd like to see Sirius happy," Harry blurted out before he could help himself, and Davie froze midsentence, giving Harry a soft but nonetheless piercing stare.

"I'd like that too," she said vaguely, nodding at Harry one last time before backing out of the room. Harry sat still, thinking about the conversation they'd just had long after Davie's footsteps had already plodded down the hallway and down the stairs.

* * *

_September the First, Nineteen Hundred Ninety Five_

While thanks to Dumbledore, Harry had escaped suspension from Hogwarts, there had been very little time for celebration - with all the cleaning that had to be done in order to make the house at Grimmauld Place liveable, school preparation, and dealing with Harry's understandable yet ever-fickle temper, there had been little time to relax.

By now, Harry had been dropped off at King's Cross - Sirius had managed a short excursion to see him off, but had now returned to the house. The remainder of the Order members were still away to see the younger lot safely to Hogwarts, leaving Davie and Sirius alone in the house.

"D'you want to play cards?"

Davie looked up from the chair she had been seated in, pausing from fanning herself against the remaining heat. She raised an eyebrow incredulously at Sirius, huffing lightly. "I hate cards, you know that."

"One game of Exploding Snap," Sirius insisted, knowing full well that ever since their youth, Davie had never possessed the patience for card games or chess. She glared at him darkly as though he had just suggested they talk about old times over a bottle of bobotuber pus. "Canasta. Poker. Fifty-Two Pickup." Within ten minutes of pestering, Sirius had managed to wheedle a desperately bored Davie into a game of Fish.

"Any fives?"

"Go fish," Davie said somewhat grudgingly, staring boredly at the cards in her hand. "Did Harry get on the train alright? I still can't get over -"

"He's better protected now, Davie," Sirius insisted for perhaps the third time in their game. "We know better than to leave Dung on duty alone now -"

"There've been dementors on the train before, haven't there?" Davie said, unabashedly placing her hand of cards down and giving the table a light but exasperated slap. "And now that the Ministry is even more against Dumbledore, I wouldn't put it past them if they let dementors in again -"

"You saw them." Sirius said, putting his cards down as well. "The Ministry doesn't even have control over them anymore."

An uncomfortable pause settled over the pair, and it was evident that they were both feeling the same thing - they, of all people, had the biggest obligation to Harry. Lily and James were their best friends, and yet, they were the ones forbidden from leaving this old, decrepit house. Sirius happened to look up at Davie at the exact, brief fraction of a second where a familiar spark flashed in her eyes, and while he knew that it was wrong, and it was something Dumbledore would have his hide for, he knew that now would be one of the rare times that he could sway her into something.

"It's a shame," Sirius said, breaking the silence abruptly so that Davie' head snapped up to attention. "You're so used to being an Auror."

"W-what's that supposed to mean?" Davie asked quietly, raising an eyebrow.

"I mean," Sirius said, struggling not to allow any sort of amusement on to his face as he spoke, "that it's such a shame that in all your brilliance, you've lost your touch for rule-breaking, else we might be able to keep a closer eye on Harry. _Personally_."

Davie paused, eyeing Sirius critically. She had _lost her touch_? Davie could not fathom the idea of having lost her touch - rusty, perhaps. But lost?

"You must be _mad_," Davie said sharply, and the slight sneer on her face was evidence that Sirius had succeeded in getting to her. The gears in her head were turning furiously now, to the point where Sirius would not have been surprised if he saw wheels literally spinning if he looked hard enough into her eyes. One little nudge, one more challenge - while Sirius knew it was wrong to use the fact that he knew her so well to manipulate her into helping him fulfill his want to leave Grimmauld Place, he could no longer resist.

"Am I?" Sirius asked, leaning across the table and staring at Davie with a grave expression. "Because I can't help but think we're letting our old friends down, sitting here and doing nothing."

For a moment, Davie simply stared at Sirius - what was the point of this? What was this supposed to be? And then, in a flash of thought, Lily's face flitted across her memory - Sirius was, damned if she'd admit it, apparently correct. This was not the way they had always been. They had not simply done as they were told in the early days of the Order, they had acted on their own. Convinced, Davie pulled out her wand, conjuring a out of thin air and scribbling words onto one of the playing cards, sliding it across the table towards Sirius, then standing and walking around the table to stand next to him.

"We cast this charm on one another," she said hurriedly. "If it works, we go from there, but we need to act before anyone returns or we're done for."

Sirius stood up, pulling out his own wand and looking at Davie - he did not know what the spell would do or what Davie had planned, but if she was anything like the Davie he had a;ways known, he expected sheer brilliance. "Count of three, then?" Davie gave a slow nod. "One, two, _three_ -"

Both of them pointed their wands at one another, simultaneously calling out, "_Dixpentannus_ _Tempus Evanesco_!"

Sirius felt an immediate squeezing sensation rush over his entire body, and he let out a pained, breathless groan, leaning against the nearby table for support - from the corner of his eye, he saw that Davie was leaning reliantly against the back of the chair as well.

It felt almost like he was being crushed from all sides, and his skin felt so hot that it was unpleasant, like he was melting, and whatever was being liquefied was being wrung from him ad though he were a wet rag. His bones felt as though they were in danger of breaking, and suddenly, he felt a modicum of doubt for whatever Davie had done, then suddenly… the pain stopped. He still felt slightly dizzy and out of breath, and he sat in the chair to gain his bearings. Davie, however, immediately stumbled across the room to stand in front of large, full-length mirror, reaching out to dust its surface off with her sleeve - and she let out a scream.

Immediately, despite his lightheadedness, he stood up and ran stumbling over to her - he approached her from behind, giving her a slight shake - and when he turned her to face him, they both let out a scream upon seeing one another.

"Bloody _hell_!" Davie said, clapping a hand to her chest shakily, staring at Sirius wide-eyed. "It _worked! _Look at you!"

"Look at _you_!" Sirius said, seizing her shoulders and staring at her, holding her still as though he thought perhaps what he was seeing was merely a result of lightheadedness.

"We-" Davie said, panting slightly, glancing Sirius up and down incredulously. "We're -"

"We're eighteen. _Bloody _- " Sirius said, glancing at himself in the mirror, confirming the fact to himself. He couldn't believe his eyes - the lines on his face disappeared, and once again, he looked young and handsome - he filled out his clothes a bit more as he was no longer sickly and emaciated, but muscular and sculpted.

"_Move_," Davie said urgently, nudging him out of the way of the mirror and looking at herself, shaking her head as though she, too, were worried that her vision was finally failing her as a result of getting on in years. But it was true - her face was smooth and porcelain-like again, her body was no longer that of a hardened Auror, but supple and soft.

"You're brilliant!" Sirius said, a sort of joy present in his voice that had been absent for a good many years - unable to control the compulsion, he swept Davie up into an embrace, spinning her around a couple of time before placing her back onto her feet.

Truth be told, for all the time he had known her, Sirius Black had never expected anything less than brilliance from Davina Maddux, but even this surpassed all expectations. This was Sirius' _dream_ - to go back to being eighteen somehow, to go back to the way things had once been.

"What do we do now?" Sirius asked, running a hand through his hair - even that, he found, felt just as it had, and coifed and supple as it had been when he'd first gotten his hands on his flying motorbike. "Where are we going?"

"Where else?" Davie asked brightly, and the impish grin on her face, the sort of grin that had only been alluded to on the woman's face for years, burst in its fullness onto Davie's face so comfortably and automatically that it nearly sent a chill down Sirius' spine.

"We're going to Hogwarts."

_A/N's_

_So first of all, I've been going back and rereading the story to keep my muse going because I've been on a roll - and then I noticed that a lot of the line dividers I've put in on the edit feature when I upload my chapters don't show up in the final version, even when I save. Has anyone else had this happen to them? I'm going to lose some time going back and putting them in unfortunately, and this frustrates me to no end, because I had never noticed that the lines weren't being inserted until recently. So annoying!_

_Thank you to **amrawo** for reviewing, and to **MeliB1987** and **tashtash** for favoriting/subscribing. Also, in response to a message I received from **29**, I actually haven't seen a whole lot of Sirius/OC stories out there that I've followed extensively, but I'm currently looking through the ones listed, and I will definitely let you know if I can recommend anything!_

_Anyway, I'm currently in the process of writing a really juicy scene that I believe will be part of chapter 39. I'm a little behind on my writing schedule, but I'm chugging bravely along and I thank all of you guys for sticking with the story! I'm turning twenty-one on June the 30th__ so reviews and feedback would be a much appreciated birthday present! I will try my absolute best to make sure I have the chapter posted before then, but I have a lot of family type things coming up, so it seems slightly cloudy. Keep your fingers crossed! Until next time, cheers!_


	37. Chapter 37

**Chapter Thirty Seven**

_September the First, Nineteen Hundred Ninety-Five_

"So make sure you remember," Davie nagged. "The instant you start to feel any different, speak up and we need to go _straight_ back to Grimmauld Place."

Faux-teenaged Davie and Sirius had taken a very complicated route to their destination upon Davie's insistence in order to avoid being traced. They had first transfigured their clothing into large, oversized traveling clothes in order to get them to Diagon Alley, where they could use magic more freely. They then slipped off into an alleyway and Apparated into the Shrieking Shack, just outside of Hogsmeade once they were sure that they appeared in every way to be teenagers again - the instant they arrived, Davie had drawn her wand and transfigured their dingy clothes into crisp, new Hogwarts uniforms, complete with Gryffindor badges and trimming on their robes.

"Bloody hell, I'd forgotten I used to walk around with bare legs like this all the time," Davie said, looking down at her legs in the pleated skirt - she'd forgotten that she'd once been especially vane about her legs, and now, she felt fourteen again - she tugged at the hem as though it would somehow make it longer, taking awkward steps as though a single whisp of wind would make the difference in retaining her dignity. Sirius, however, glanced Davie up and down; he had not forgotten for an instant. This was the way he remembered her, and being like this - being young and spontaneous - made it only more difficult to constantly remind himself that she was no longer his.

"Come on, we still have time to get to the carriages - we've only just beaten the Hogwarts Express. We can't stay long. Neither of us is technically supposed to be seen, no matter _what_ age," Davie said, grabbing Sirius by the wrist and practically dragging him away. They practically sprinted out of the Shrieking Shack, across the abandoned High Street, and into the throng of students at Hogsmeade Station.

"I can't find them," Davie said, only now recalling how it felt to wade through a sea of students. "We'll need to catch up with them in the Great Hall - find us a carriage with some second years, they won't ask many questions about not recognizing us."

"Yeah, sure, whatever you -"

And Sirius froze.

As they approached one of the carriages, he blinked in surprise at the sight of the ugly, skeletal creatures that somewhat resembled half dead, emaciated horses which pulled the carriages which, to his eyes, had always moved on their own when they had been students. He knew, of course, that they were thestrals - creatures that could only be seen by people who had witnessed death - but it did prepare him to actually be able to see them now.

"You too, then," Davie asked, and Sirius did not even have to turn around. He could hear the sad smile in her voice. It was even more a testament to how much things had changed in the past fifteen years. They hadn't yet been able to see the thestrals, even when they were in the Auror. They hadn't actually _watched_ anyone die, even if some among them were dead. They had always somehow managed to evade it. But Sirius had seen people die in cells across from him in Azkaban, people receiving the Dementor's Kiss and wasting away to nothing. Davie had watched people cursed irreversibly by Dark Wizards take their last breaths. She had seen Dark Wizards in Bulgaria choose death over evading capture.

Sirius shuddered slightly as he climbed in to the carriage, extending a hand to assist Davie, who now accepted without question. Suddenly, it didn't matter who they were in the carriage with - they attempt to fill in their roles as students, all the while trying not to look at the thestrals.

However, once the carriages arrived and allowed the students to disembark at the steps of Hogwarts, both of them seemed to let out a long-held breath of relief. Hogwarts looked very much the same - the lake, the lawn, Hagrid's hut, and on the far end of the grounds, the greenhouses. Unable to help himself - it seemed that along with an eighteen year old body, he also seemed to have regained his very lax sense of self-control - Sirius nudged Davie with his elbow and chuckled.

"You remember those Greenhouses, don't you?" he asked huskily, an impish grin spreading across his face. "The time Apollyon Pringle caught us running out from behind the greenhouses so we wouldn't be late for Potions? And you accidentally put on my tie in stead of yours? It was so long, it practically went down to your knees, I can't believe you don't remember -"

Davie's face went bright red at the memory of their youthful trysts behind the greenhouses, and for a brief moment, she looked as though she would punch Sirius right in the nose, but instead, she turned on her heel and tromped off up the stairs. Sirius grinned victoriously, however, at the fact that for a split second just as she was turning away, he caught a grin creeping onto her face. Of course she would smile, Sirius thought proudly. Those were among some of their best memories of their simplest times, what reason was there not to smile?

Sirius and Davie walked side-by-side into the Great Hall with the other students and immediately spotted Harry with Ron and Hermione. They hurried over, sitting across the table from Harry without explanation - they could pass for students, and hopefully would not be asked too many questions by other students. Sirius leaned across the table right in front of Harry and chuckled, "Oy, Potter, could you pass the pumpkin juice?"

"We're still - hold on, who are -"

Harry paused, staring at the two unfamiliar figures who appeared only a year or two older than them. He'd never seen them before, but according to their robes, they were in Gryffindor. They ought to have been here, he ought to have known them, but he was sure he had not seen them in all his years here.

And then, something clicked. Harry remembered the photo that he had seen of the old Order, remembered how young and handsome his godfather had been. It had only been in a photo but -

"Is that _you_?" Harry asked incredulously, not daring the risk of saying Sirius' name out loud. By now, he had nudged Hermione and kicked Ron under the table, and they leaned across the table conspiratorially, staring at the pair.

"Miss Maddux?" Hermione asked, brow furrowing. "How did you -"

"A bit of charms work I whipped up - I'm sure you could do the same," Davie said with a knowing grin. "We can't stay long, we just wanted to make sure you lot got here safe, reacquaint ourselves with the school -"

"See there," Sirius muttered under his breath, slinging his arm over Davie comfortably the way he had down many times before when they were students. Harry and the others blinked in surprise at the fact that instead of recoiling, she leaned casually into his shoulder as he nodded at a point across the room, the Slytherin table. "The blonde boy - that's _Cousin Cissy's_ son, Draco. If we'd have gotten married, he'd have been your nephew."

"Well, it's good to know that my decision reaped _something_ good, he looks like an absolutely horrid boy," Davie said with a slight snort, which caused Sirius, Harry, Ron, and Hermione all to begin laughing, though they clapped their hands over their mouths to keep from drawing attention to their group at the table.

"If my mum were alive, she'd insist we marry our firstborn daughter off to him -"

"But - inbreeding! That's _disgusting_!" Hermione huffed in a hushed tone, but to her surprise, Davie did not appear to share the same reaction.

"It's not even that," Davie said, reaching towards the candy dish in the middle of the table and unwrapping a foil-wrapped piece of fudge. "Considering Pureblood Wizards have survived for years without any major deformities - bloody hell, Sirius, the Madduxes go nearly as far back as the Blacks, I'm sure even we're related somehow. If the Malfoy boy wasn't so horrid, there'd be no issue, but -"

"But he's horrid," Harry confirmed - he still seemed a bit cross after recent events, but managed a smile. Davie pointed at him and nodded in agreement.

Sirius and Davie basked in the next few minutes, listening to Dumbledore address the students - it was pleasant to feel like they were teenagers again. Sirius, especially, allowed himself to be immersed in the illusion - Harry was not Harry. Harry was James. However, when a frog-like woman by the name of Dolores Umbridge took the stage, Davie blinked, pointing at the stage as inconspicuously as possible.

"I remember her - when I tried working at the Ministry, she was only an assistant, what is she -"

But before she could finish, something else caught her attention that genuinely made her chill - a few seats away from Umbridge at the High Table, Severus Snape was staring directly at her and Sirius. _He_ would no doubt recognize them - Davie had not even thought to consider his presence here. She grabbed Sirius' arm sharply.

"We need to leave - _now_," she hissed urgently in his ear, yanking him closer. She herself had no desire to leave either. It felt good, to be back in a familiar place, in her eighteen-year-old body, with Sirius next to her - but it did not change the fact that things were now very, _very _different. "Snape is looking -"

"Since when have we ever let Snivellus ruin our fun?" Sirius chuckled jovially, and Davie rolled her eyes - Sirius reverted so easily back to his old way of haughty nonchalance, she ought to have known she couldn't drag him away so easily. To make things even worse, with a broad, toothy grin, he raised his hand - and _waved_.

"Sirius!" Davie hissed, yanking him up hard to his feet, and with surprising strength, she pulled him out of the Great Hall. Once they had left through the large doors and found themselves in the school corridors, however, Sirius took the lead, pulling Davie around through the familiar halls which he still knew like the back of his hand until he reached the statue of the hump-backed witch. Glancing around carefully, they opened the passageway and clambered into the hole in the statue.

In the dark passageway that led to the Honeydukes basement, Davie and Sirius paused to catch their breath, assured that no one else would have left the feast to follow them for the time being. Once they emerged through the secret door in the basement of the candy shoppe, Davie clapped a hand over her chest, crouched over slightly. Sirius, on the other hand, began laughing uncontrollably - Davie eyed him, looking completely scandalized.

"That was - _augh_!" Sirius laughed, unable to even formulate a complete sentence. "Look at you - same as ever, always worried about getting caught -"

"This was _dangerous_!" Davie said shrilly, wide-eyed at Sirius' reaction to the entire situation. "I can't believe that you managed to talk me into this."

"You came up with this all on your own!" Sirius retorted. "I don't recall ever saying '_oh, Davie! Turn us into teenagers so we can go back to Hogwarts!_' so unless -"

"I wouldn't have thought of it if not for you!" Davie replied, gesticulating widely with her arms. "I was completely fine staying in that house and doing as I was told, it was only because of _you_ -"

"That's how it's always been, hasn't it? _All because of me_…"

Suddenly, Sirius' tone was not argumentative, but suddenly very somber, so much that even Davie lost her ability to argue with him. He took a few steps closer to her, and Davie blinked unsurely, her knees shaking slightly. He placed his hands on her shoulders and shook his head slowly.

"I can only hope you'll forgive me," he said coarsely. "But we're here. We're _here_. I have to -"

And instead of finishing his sentence, his leaned forward, pressing his lips to Davie's.

Better sense dictated that Davie should have shoved him aside and given him a fierce rebuke for the fact the he allowed the Anti-Aging charm upon the both of them go to his head - but in truth, all of this was getting to her as well. Her knees still shook, now even worse - Sirius felt the quavering and without breaking the kiss, gently backed her petite form against the wall to hold her up. Davie wrapped her arms around his neck, breaking the kiss and burying her head in the curve of his shoulder.

"You remember this place," she said quietly, not looking up so that her voice was slightly muffled, and Sirius froze as well, though he did not release her, still holding her against the wall. He _hadn't _realized where they were until Davie had brought it up. He had not even realized he'd brought her straight to the site of their first kiss. "I suppose, well - I suppose it's only natural we'd be drawn here. It's a reflex, you see," she stammered. "We're retracing -"

"Would you stop trying to make sense of everything?" Sirius asked quietly, chuckling throatily. "This is like trying to have a conversation with a textbook."

Davie was struck briefly speechless, recalling how Sirius had said the exact same thing when they were fifteen years old, _twenty _years ago. It had been twenty years since then, since they had been bickering teenagers that could be nowhere near one another, and twenty years since the kiss in this very same place managed to change everything between them. How, then, did everything feel so much the same?

Satisfied with the lack of protest on Davie's part, Sirius leaned over and kissed her again - he smiled when he as he snaked his arms around her waist, her fingertips pressed into the back of his neck the way she had always done when they were young. This was precisely he wanted, for things to feel the same as they once had, and somehow now, after he had last all hope of the possibility, it was coming true. He had been just as sure as Davie that all of this was over, but now he was face with the very real possibility that it did not have to be.

"I love you," he said throatily, breaking the kiss briefly before he could even remember his promise not to dwell on this again.

"I love you too," Davie replied - she added no conditions to the statement, no arguments, no rebukes. She simply said it - Sirius felt an almost explosive warmth throat his body, and he began to kiss her with more urgency, drawing their bodies closer to one another, basking in the familiarity of having the soft curves of her petite form meshing warmly against him.

However, in the midst of this kiss, almost simultaneously Sirius and Davie felt an unpleasant sensation, almost like something tugging away under their skin - they quickly pulled apart and looked at each other, realizing that after twelve surreal hours of returning to their youth, their time was up.

"We need to go back. We need to leave, _now_," Davie grimaced urgently as the sensation slowly but steadily intensified into something that was almost pain. She grabbed Sirius' forearm and tugged. "Can you Apparate?"

"Don't worry," he nodded, brow furrowed - truly, he did not _want_ to return to Grimmauld Place, but at this point, he was very abruptly faced with the fact that it could not be avoided. "I'll get us back."

* * *

_A/N's_

_I've managed to update before my birthday! The night before to be exact, so come tomorrow, and come the next update I will be twenty-one! I've gotten a lot of feedback since the last chapter, and having the same happen on this chapter would be one of the best presents I could ask for._

_I hope you guys won't hate me too much for skewing some details of what's in the books, hopefully I didn't get too carried away in taking artistic license. _

_Thank you to __**AYNIL**__, __**SilverWolf77**__, __**Chigu**__, __**chloe94**__, __, __**Cici Linne**__, __**Priyu0624**__, __**AddictedToPotterAndProudOfIt**__, and __**Miorochi**__ for favoriting and subscribing._

_And for review responses: __**amrawo **__and __**Wateranddarkness666**__, I'm you liked the Davie/Harry interaction, there will be more to come, especially after some of the more traumatic events hit. To __**CC**__, your review put an enormous grin on my face. I love knowing that people find my characters well-developed, I've put a lot of work into over the course of writing fanfiction. Thank you also to __**AddictedToPotterAndProudOfIt **__and __**Priyu0624**__ for reviewing. I hope to hear from you guys again!_

_The next couple of chapters that I have written will be some of the more dramatic bits of the story, in which Sirius and Davie make a breakthrough, and more details of what happened while Sirius was imprisoned will be revealed. I hope to have those up for you guys soon. Until next time, cheers!_


	38. Chapter 38

**Chapter Thirty-Eight**

_September the Fifth, Nineteen Hundred Ninety Five_

"No, Sirius, we _can't_ do that again. Once was bad enough."

By some stroke of luck, Davie and Sirius had managed to arrive back at Grimmauld Place just moments before everyone else returned as well - thankfully, Snape was too occupied with the duties of being Potions Master to mention that he had seen a teenaged Sirius and Davie, and even if he had mentioned it, they never would have believed that Davina Maddux, reputed as an Auror who followed rules by the book even if it killed her, would do such a thing.

Sirius, however, appeared to have no qualms at all in pushing his luck, especially is said pushing presented him the prospect of being young again. Being young again meant erasing over ten years of imprisonment and isolation and disappointment, even if these things were erased only to him. The desire for this was what led him to decide not to sleep after the rest of the Order had departed save for Davie; he waited until they were surely gone, then returned to the living room, where Davie was already laying down on one of the old sofas in the manner to which she had grown accustomed, when he approached her with the suggestion that they try the Anti-Aging Charm, just once more. Davie quickly refused.

"Why not?" Sirius snapped. "What was so bad - because you're scared? Because it made you feel something -"

"I don't want to -"

"You're scared because it gave you away?" Sirius persisted, his eyes glinting furiously - and fury of this level between the two of them was something that rarely did anything but escalate. This, too, was something familiar, except with a very poignant difference. There was no Lily and James to pull them apart and calm them down this time. There was no Remus to step into the middle and try to alleviate tensions. It was Sirius and Davie, butting heads with tempers flaring and nothing to stop whatever damage might be done. "You're scared because now I know you're not as frigid on the inside as you act towards me!"

"Do you need to make this about us?" Davie asked, sitting up and running a hand through her hair in exasperation. "Do you need to make this about - about what we did, or what we might have done if -"

"That's it, isn't it?" Sirius pressed on, steamrolling over Davie completely, which was by no means easy. Davina Astrid Maddux was never one to allow another person to speak over her under any circumstance, especially when tempers came into play. "You're afraid of the fact that if the charm had lasted just a bit longer -"

"- that I would have slept with you?" Davie snapped shrilly, drawing herself up to full height and looking Sirius in the eye. "That I might have given in and said to hell with it, let's shag right beneath Hogwarts? Yes, Sirius - I'M BLOODY TERRIFIED!" she snapped. "Because I've spent more than a decade trying _not_ to give in - I've spent more than a decade trying not to cry at night because everything in my life has gone wrong, and I'll be _damned _if I've wasted the past ten years of my life trying to forget all of this!"

Sirius took a step backwards, taken aback by the sudden confession - this was the way major revelations came from Davie, like volcanic eruptions so violent that one could not in any way prepare for them, but the familiarity of _this_ aspect of Davie's personality presented the first instance in which Sirius felt no sense of relief at something about the woman he loved that had remained unchanged.

"I - I give up," he said suddenly, his voice weakened as he was unable to look at Davie in the eye. Davie on the other hand, stared at Sirius as though he had just sprouted another head. He had never given up on her, he had never stopped pressing her or trying to convince her into things.

Davie looked at him - really looked at him - for the first time in all these years and noticed not only the physical differences, but the weariness, the tiredness in his dark brown eyes that had not been there before.

"Just - just _one_ night. Please. Let me go back to being the me I remember for _one_ night. Even if I have to go alone," he said, his voice filled with a desperation that left Davie genuinely unsettled. Sirius Black did not beg. He did plead for anything, yet here he was - Davie would not have been surprised if he went onto his knees if she continued to refuse.

"Just tonight." Davie said, and Sirius looked up immediately at her in surprise. If it was unusual for him to concede in an argument, it was even more an anomaly for her to do so. "But I'm going with you. Wherever you go, I'm going. If something happens to you and it's my fault -"

Davie froze when Sirius suddenly gained a very different expression on his face - what did he hope would be the end of that statement? Davie didn't even know what she'd been about to say, just that she'd been speaking without thinking.

"I don't want to have to explain that I've been turning you into an eighteen year old boy, they'll all have my head," Davie corrected herself abruptly. "Merlin knows you're reckless enough as it is."

But Sirius could not care any less what Davie's reasoning was, only that she had just agreed to come with him. He turned his face away from her, pretending to busy himself looking for his wand though he knew very well where'd he'd placed it last. He simply did not want to risk her looking into his eyes and seeing that the gears in his head were turning furiously.

It was wrong to manipulate her feelings. It was wrong to plan ways to take advantage of the things he knew she felt. Sirius knew that the ideas coursing through his head were wrong on so many levels, but if this was the last chance Davie would allow him to relive whatever wisps he could cling onto of their youth, then his desperation won out without question. He would apologize later - it wasn't as if he was going to do anything to hurt her.

"Aha," he said, finally picking up his wand from a nearby vanity table, pretending that he was quite satisfied after a feigned search for it. "Right then - well," he said. "We'll get on with this quickly then."

This time, after casting the charm, Sirius and Davie seemed better prepared for the strange sensation that the transformation caused - Davie hardly even made a sound, leaning forward on the coffee table. When the change was complete, she glanced up at Sirius, keeping a few safe steps away from him. The past few days had been strange between them, after the incident at Hogwarts, and the risk of the same incident repeating itself, as much as Davie would have liked to deny it, was very real.

"Where are we going?" Davie asked hesitantly, and for a brief moment, Sirius' jaw clenched - Davie knew that expression well enough. It meant he was concerned about something, but what, Davie would not find. Sirius immediately stepped forward and took a hold of her forearm, pulling her off without explaining.

They followed the same procedure for safe Apparition as they had before, sneakily making their way to Diagon Alley. The entire way, Davie repeatedly asked where they were going, but Sirius remained mum, a stoic expression plastered across his face.

"Leave the Apparating to me," Sirius said finally, once they had reached the same side alley as the last time. "We're going to - to the last place I remember being happy," he explained, taking a hold of Davie's arm. She opened her mouth to protest, but before she could utter so much as a word, there was a telltale jolting sensation behind her navel, and she was yanked off of the ground, landing with a thud on a hardwood floor, somewhere very dark.

Davie could not see a thing - a small sliver of light drew a perforated line on the floor, peering through heavy curtains over a tall window, but other than that, the room was submerged in darkness. Having landed on her behind, Davie gave a small pained groan, feeling around the ground beneath her hesitantly. The ground was dusty, but beneath the layer of dirt was a smooth floor. Feeling a bit further around her, Davie felt her hand hit the edge of a carpet of some sort - a worn down Saxony rug that felt strangely familiar underneath her palms, though she could not immediately place it.

"Davie?"

"_Where did you take me_?" Davie asked in a tight and inexplicably fearful voice, and a faint rustling sound signaled that she was getting to her feet and pulling her wand out from her traveling clothes. Before Sirius could reach out to stop her - he had meant to do so and explain himself far sooner - she had drawn her wand.

"_Lumos!_"

A light burst out for the tip of her wand and proceeded to settle into the lamps in the room - and once Davie's eyes had adjusted to the light, she gasped, dropping her wand with a clatter.

They were in the old Maddux home - it was covered in dust that seemed to make the air thick with a sense of age and neglect, but everything was recognizable. The chairs and the table, the fireplace, the sofas - all of it was the same. The house had remained completely untouched.

"I'm sorry," Sirius said suddenly, and Davie wheeled around to face him, her face quivering as though she could not decide whether she wanted to cry, or to beat Sirius to a bloody pulp. "This - this is the last place I can remember being happy. I had to -"

"You have _no _right," Davie said throatily, her voice shaking with fury as tears began leaking from the corners of her eyes. "You had no right to bring me here - this is _my _home and if I wanted to stay away, then bloody hell, I had every right -"

"I had to see it again - if this is my last chance, I had to!" Sirius said, gesturing wildly with his arms. "This was home for _me_ too! This was the last home I knew before I went to Azkaban, I had to see -"

"Then by all means, go see!" Davie said shrilly, throwing herself onto the sofa, crossing her arms over herself and coughing at the cloud of dust that arose upon the couch being sat on for the first time in over a decade. "But I don't want to see any of it. I don't want to be in this place."

"Fine." Sirius said, departing up the stairs alone. He didn't care about the dust - it was nowhere near as decrepit as Grimmauld Place, dust was nothing to him. He let his hand run over the banister as he ascended the stairs, looking around. He walked at almost a snail's pace across the upper floor, occasionally glancing back down the stairs at Davie, who did not move - she stared intensely forward, and could have passed as a statue if not for the visible quivering of her hands.

He found himself at the door at the end of the hallway - the den, which had served as his first bedroom when they'd first taken up house in the Maddux residence. He placed his hand on the ornate doorknob and pushed it, glancing around - but this was not the elegant office he had been familiar with. Davie - clean, meticulous, fastidiously organized Davie - would never have let her father's precious library fall into such disarray, and yet as Sirius glanced around, his eyes were met from every angle by documents and books and newspapers strewn all over the floor and the large desk in the middle of the room. Approaching the desk, he placed his hands on the papers and whisked some of the dust from them, using his other hand to shield his face. His brow furrowed when he realized that they were all clippings with various dates from the Daily Prophet, from Muggle newspapers, and other papers Sirius did not even recognize.

Sirius Black Arrested on Charges of Conspiracy and Murder… Peter Pettigrew Murdered by Schooltime Friend… Former Hogwarts Student Sentenced to Life in Azkaban…

All of the clippings were about him being sent to prison - piled on top of photographs of the street where he'd cornered Peter , after _Peter_ had betrayed the Potters, pieces of parchment with details and names scribbled and crossed many times over. He began sifting through them more deeply - it was so surreal. He was young again at first glance, and yet still he was being faced with the events of the past decade that he wanted nothing more than to erase. All of it was here, scattered haphazardly around the room.

"I tried _so_ hard to make sense of it all."

Sirius visibly jumped in surprise at the sound of a voice in the doorway, and he looked up to see Davie standing just outside in the corridor, quite pale in the face and quivering visibly, even from this distance. The last time he had seen her this way was one the Hogwarts Express, the September after her parents were killed.

"It all seems so obvious now," she said with a forced laugh, though tears were streaming steadily down her cheeks now. "I suppose that's part of it - you didn't trust me enough to tell me you weren't their Secret Keeper. Remus wrote me last year while I was still in Bulgaria, about how you escaped from Azkaban, and how Peter - well, you know. I felt so thick for not seeing it, I didn't even answer his letter," she explained, attempting to sound casual as she took a few hesitant steps into the room. "And I lied to you," she finished, glancing up at Sirius with a gaze that drilled relentlessly into his.

"You - come again?" Sirius asked, his forehead wrinkling.

"When I told you I'd forgotten about you up until the moment I saw you, the night they rescued me," Davie said, her voice suddenly filled with a disconcerting calm. "I didn't forget you. For the past year I've _hated_ you."

Sirius took a reflexive step backward, and Davie let out a harsh choking sound that may have been some sort of attempt at laughing if not for the fact that it was completely humorless and accompanied by a sweeping motion of her arm that shoved a pile of papers clean off the desk and into the air, fluttering around them now like a swarm of white birds.

"I hated you," she repeated blankly. "Because for ten years, you let me think this was my fault, that I couldn't get you out of Azkaban because somewhere along the road, _my_ efforts had fallen short, that you had somehow placed your trust in me and I had let you down. You didn't _trust_ me," Davie said resentfully. "Everything we had - even if I tried to forget about it, I still believed in it until I realized it was a _lie _-"

"It was never a _lie_!" Sirius roared, giving the old desk a shove in frustration so that it creaked and threatened to tip over completely. "You think there wasn't a night that I fell asleep without feeling like I _was_ the spy because I was letting you fall asleep in my arms thinking I had told you the truth? All I was trying to do was what _you _did - I wanted to _protect_ you!"

Davie attempted to laugh harshly yet again, but this time, it only managed to escape her lips as a piteous, choking sob. She raised her arm, using her sleeve to wipe her face and opening her mouth a few times as if she were about to speak - Sirius was so frustrated that he was nearly tempted to take her by the shoulders and shake the words out of her.

"The story Remus told," Sirius said in realization, recalling what their friend had shared about the fight that had occurred in this very room. Davie exhaled deeply and looked down at the desk, strewn with papers that felt like relics to her. Her hands shook as she remembered the days on end that she spent in this room, barely eating and never sleeping. She remembered tearing pages from the Daily Prophet, clipping moving magical photographs and laying them on the surface of the desk alongside Muggle photos of the scene of the crime as though the photos were hiding some sort of code that she could break. Days on end for an entire year, she obsessed over every detail of the crime as though there was something missing.

"It doesn't matter anymore," she sobbed. "I can't love you because _- _BECAUSE NONE OF THIS MATTERS -"

"NO!" Sirius interrupted. "I'm not going to pretend that there's nothing left between us when you and I both know -"

"What do we _both know_?" Davie asked in a coldly calm voice that sounded, for lack of a better description on Sirius' part, very Slytherin. "I know I'm not eighteen anymore, Sirius. Do _you_ know that?"

For a while, Sirius stared at Davie in very tense silence - the truth had finally come out, and not only that. It had burst out like a rogue Fillibuster's Firework that neither Sirius nor Davie had been ready for.

"Do you remember what I said? That day on the grass at Hogwarts?" Davie asked suddenly, her voice quavering with emotion. "About growing up?"

"Yeah," Sirius said, unable to help it now that his voice was beginning to feel choked and restrained as well. "That's it's something like dying, you said. I remember." he said, and only now did he finally feel the full impact of what she had said that day. He had thought she was being silly, that she was simply worrying herself too much over Romnic Digby's disappearance. Now, however, it felt almost as though those words had been just as much a prophecy as the one produced by Sibyll Trelawney that had driven the Potters into hiding.

"If growing up is a little bit like dying," Davie said quietly, leaning weakly against the desk as though all of these revelations were just as exhausting physically as they were emotionally, "I think I've done a great deal of growing up. Because - because, Sirius, I've felt dead for a long time. A very long time."

"We're not _dead_, Davie!" Sirius said, and to his slight chagrin, hearing him make this statement with such pleading in his voice only made the sobs rack her small figure even worse. She was now overtaken by a great deal more emotion than she was comfortable with sharing, not the least of which was a sense of fear at the thought of Sirius knowing everything that had happened in the past years.

"You have to accept that we're not the same anymore," Davie said shakily, unable to look him in the eye - just one look into his eyes threatened to change her mind, and in her mind, she wanted this simply to be resolved once and for all. Her heart, however, did not seem to be cooperating. "Too much has happened -"

"Too much has happened and yet every time I catch you off your guard you still say that you love me too -"

"_Enough_," Davie said, though she no longer had the strength to yell at him. Instead, she pushed her weight off of the desk and strode past Sirius out of the room.

Sirius couldn't bring himself to move - though he felt guilt admitting it to himself, he had expected Davie's resolve to be much weaker than this. He thought that bringing her here would be enough, that it would be the single grain of sand that tipped the scale. He pressed the heel of his hand into his forehead, grasping at his hair slightly. He stood in the same spot for perhaps five minutes before striding towards the door and back into the hallway. However, when he stepped out, before he took another step towards the stair case, he spotted Davie standing in front of a closed set of double doors. She was silent, staring down at the doorknob with her hand hovering over it, yet for this entire time she had not opened it.

Unsurely, Sirius strode up behind Davie, but instead of addressing her, he placed his hand on the other door handle and pushed the door open. In her surprise, Davie let out a small gasp, but, after inhaling deeply, she stepped inside. This had been her room once, as strange and unfamiliar as it felt now. It felt strange to feel like a guest in her own home - in a place that was still hers - but despite owning the old brick building, it had not been a home to her in a long time. Even though nothing had changed, there was a sort of fear and surprise in Davie's eyes as though she had never seen the place in her life.

However, when Sirius extended his wand to light the lamps in the room, it would turn out that his surprise was even greater - the room appeared practically untouched since the last time _he_ had been in it, the night Lily and James had died. _His_ nightshirt and slippers were still sprawled where he had discarded them in his rush to reach Godric's Hollow. The bed was still unmade, which Davie would never have stood for - she had been in Bulgaria at the time. The room was clean and free of dust unlike the rest of the house, because Davie had put a Permanent Cleaning Charm on the room, unable to stand dust of any kind collecting on her things. The tall standing mirror near the bed was framed completely by moving photographs - a photo of a very young Davie being carried by her father, still with her pigtails and crooked teeth, a photo of Lily and Davie making silly puckered faces at the camera, taken at the train station at the end of their third year. Sirius walked over and pulled a photograph from its place on the mirror, staring at it silently - this particular photograph was of Davie placing a medallion around his neck from their graduation from Hogwarts. Sirius remembered this night clearly, when no one had come for him, and Davie stepped out of her place in the line of seventh years to place to fill the void.

"_Turn wheresoe'er I may, by night or day, the things which I have seen I now can see no more _(1)," she recited in a near-whisper. Sirius turned around to face her and saw that she was sitting on the unmade bed, looking at a leatherbound, journal-like book which he recognized as the book of Muggle poetry Lily's parents had given to her as a graduation present. Ever since she'd received it, she had been hung up on the same poem, and like so many things, it only became clear now to Sirius why it was so meaningful to her. So many of the things Davie had said when they were young that he had dismissed, he now regretted having ignored.

"I could never come back here," Davie said so quietly that Sirius barely heard her. He turned and found that she was sitting and staring at her hands as she spoke. "After the first time I saw you in Azkaban, I came home and took one look in here and could never come back in. It - it hurt too much," she stammered weakly. "Too much had changed all at once, I didn't want to face it -" She jumped slightly when she felt Sirius placed his hands gently on her shoulders from behind.

"When I was eighteen, I could have had - _any_ girl I wanted," he said with a weak laugh. "Now look at me, I'm a fugitive. Not even the woman I was engaged to will have me anymore -"

"You're twisting the situation and you know it," Davie said, whirling around suddenly, only to found that a slight smile remained on Sirius' lips. His brown eyes were warm, and youthful, and without malice. 'If things were different, you know - you know we'd -"

"You're wrong about things changing," Sirius said stiffly. "They haven't. When we were in school, what was your excuse for not being with me? Because you didn't want everyone staring at you, because it was wrong - now, what's changed? The only difference I see is that you have a different excuse -"

"Why are you making this so hard?" Davie asked weakly, shaking her head. "Whatever we had, it's not the most important thing right now -"

"What happens when this war is over?" Sirius interrupted. "What happens when there's no more Voldemort and no more bloody war, Davie? You'll have thrown away everything and then they'll still have won because they'll still have succeeded in taking everything from us -"

"Sirius, stop -"

"You're just letting them beat you and you're letting them win because even if you've killed every last one of them, you've still let them dictate your entire life and you'll have _nothing_ left -"

"_STOP!_" Davie burst out desperately, suddenly unable to stop herself from crying again. Sirius felt a pang of guilt at the fact that she was crying so much because of him. He had gone too far in implying that Davie's attempts all these years had been futile, that by becoming an Auror to avenge her parents, she had thrown away everything else. He had gone too far down the rabbit hole, as it would appear, and no longer knew what to expect from the woman in front of him.

He did not at all expect, in fact, that she was going to practically lurch forward, wrapping her arms around him and crying inconsolably into his shoulder. Suddenly, the situation became familiar again - they were sixteen, on the Hogwarts Express. Davie was crying openly for the first time about her parents' death and Sirius simply rubbed her back unsurely, not in an position to say or do anything more. Things, Sirius mused silently, seemed to finally be coming full-circle.

"I - I don't want to do this anymore. I didn't want it to turn out this way," she sobbed shakily, and Sirius had nothing else to do except listen with his hand rubbing her back hesitantly. "I knew if I came back, I wouldn't be able to turn my back on any of this again, I knew it. I thought I'd gotten stronger, it's been fifteen bloody years, but I'm still the same. I shouldn't have stayed but I did and now it's too late -"

"Too late?"

"It's too late," Davie repeated tearfully, "because now no matter how hard I try, I can't force myself to stay away from you."

And before Sirius could react, Davie had pulled out of his arms, pressing her lips gently to his - Sirius felt what may very well have been a volcano erupting in his chest, and after hearing what he had been waiting for years to hear, a chaste kiss wasn't enough. He deepened the embrace, wrapping his arms around her tightly as though he were guarding against the possibility of her changing her mind and running away again. But she did not. When Sirius pulled her closer, she obliged, drawing her body against his and for once, instead of the sense of apprehension and fleetingness that their kisses always were laced with, this one was filled with a recklessness and a curiosity, even an awkwardness that felt as though they had allowed their minds to return to the state of feverish love they had shared as teenagers as well.

Sirius shifted so that he was slowly laying Davie onto her back, the sensation of clean linen sheets and down pillows feeling like something out of a dream. Davie clumsily unfastened the buttons of Sirius' shirt as he pulled her jumper off over her head. He proceeded to trail kisses hungrily down the ivory skin of her neck, the bare skin of his chest running over the smooth fabric of the camisole Davie wore underneath.

"Sirius, wait," Davie said breathlessly, though she made no motion to push him away. "Sirius - you need to know -"

"It doesn't matter," Sirius said in a muffled voice, pausing to brush a strand of hair out of Davie's flushed face.

"It matters," Davie insisted, biting her lower lip in apprehension. "If we - if we're going to do this, you need to know what happened while you were gone -"

"I've put two and two together," Sirius said with a wry smile, and Davie's expression changed to one of confusion and surprise. "All the stories about the arguments and everything that happened, the way you wrote each other- something happened with you and Remus. If it was going to happen, at least it was with someone trustworthy -"

"No, Sirius, you don't understand. It wasn't -"

"You don't need to be sorry," Sirius said, raising a finger to her lips and hushing her. He lowered his head and grazed his lips slowly over her collarbone. "None of that matters anymore," he spoke, his warm breath causing an eruption of tiny goosebumps over Davie's skin. None of it did matter, Davie thought suddenly, the last completely lucid thought that she could manage - and then, all that mattered was the man she had loved for so many years.

* * *

_A/N's_

_Aaaaand I think we can deduce what happened from there. Le wink!_

_Next chapter, we will find out in a very harsh way what Davie meant to tell Sirius before they did the deed. But for now, relish the fact that they've finally quit the denial!_

_(1) is another passage from the namesake poem of this story by William Wordsworth. I told you it would come up a lot!_

_I'll keep this quick because I know I've kept you waiting for a long time - my summer has turned out to be more hectic than I'd planned, but all of the new footage for Deathly Hallows and everything has remediate me! Thank you to **dragonboy456**, **AddictedToPotterAndProudOfIt**, **honestonlyforyou1**, **D. R. Sabre**, **zoey zink**, and **BlueEyedGunSlinger **for your feedback - and for those of you who sent me birthday greetings as well, double thanks! Until next time, which will hopefully be soon, cheers!_


	39. Chapter 39

**Chapter Thirty-Nine**

One glance at the sliver of window that showed through the thick velvet curtains said that it was still evening when Sirius stirred, though the lights in the room were still on. The clock on the wall said that they had not even been absent for Grimmauld Place for more than four hours - they had a good four or more hours left before the charm wore off and they had to go back. Good thing, Sirius mused with an absentminded grin, because he had no desire to move from his current place.

For the most part, Sirius Black had banished Grimmauld Place from his mind altogether. He glanced down at a sleeping Davina Maddux, laying on her side in his arms and hogging all of the blankets as she always had. If he let her sleep a bit longer, she would soon start snoring, and if he woke her while she was snoring, she would become irate and throw a pillow at him. That was the way it had always been, and even if only for now, it was that way again.

Sirius leaned over and kissed Davie's forehead, causing her to stir and look up at him, rubbing her eyes gently with the back of her wrist.

"Well…" she said hesitantly before a yawned escaped her lips. "This seems familiar."

"Yeah, it does," Sirius chuckled. "Especially that snoring of yours -"

"I don't _snore,_ and I never have!" And just as expected, he was met with a small throw pillow directly in his face. Davie laughed, clutching the sheet over herself and staring at Sirius, a very strange expression on her face.

"Will you still love me when I'm thirty-five again?" she asked - even the question seemed like something a teenager would ask. "When I've got wrinkles and I don't look like this anymore?"

"After everything we've been through," Sirius chuckled, running a hand through his hair as he sat up and placed an arm around Davie's bare shoulders, "I'd still love you even if you weighed ninety kilograms and had a tail -"

"Don't jinx it!" she replied, swatting playfully at his shoulder. "I was only asking."

"Well, you don't need to ask anymore," Sirius said, leaning over and resting his forehead against Davie's. "Because rest assured, I'll not allow you to get away from me again. Even if I need to find a way to put the portrait of my mother on your door, or have Kreacher keep an eye on you at all times-"

"That elf spooks me," Davie said with a comically grave expression on her face. "If you so much as -"

CRACK!

Davie had no opportunity to finish her threat as a sound downstairs erupted - a sound somewhere between Apparating and an explosion. Sirius and Davie scrambled for their wands and magicked themselves into a more decent state of dress before bursting through the door of the bedchamber. Davie's expression steeled as at the bottom of the stairs, they sighted four figures. Deatheaters.

"How did they know?" Sirius growled with a sort of feral incredulity, immediately having to jump out of the way of an unidentifiable hex. Davie, of course, did not know but had no time to say so as she apparated to the lower floor before Sirius.

Sirius felt rushed to return to Davie's side - this, too, was all to familiar for him. Davie, young and reckless, had always made a habit of rushing into a confrontation without help, and Sirius was quick to realize this had not changed in all of their years apart. Now, however, his heart skipped a beat every time she ducked and barely escaped being hit by the numerous blazes that appeared to be coming at them from all directions. She'd at least been more hesitant when they were children; she was still more child than Auror back then and had some sense of fear, which gave Sirius time to react. He was getting too old for this.

"_EXPELLIARMUS!_"

Sirius felt his heart arguably stop for a moment when a shriek followed a male voice casting the spell, followed by a clatter. Sirius whirled around to find that Davie had been disarmed - she looked visibly distraught at the fact, as it was something she had made a living of avoiding for many years now. Sirius, in his distraction, felt a spell hit him square between the shoulder blades, sending him lurching forward. His wand skittered across the floor to somewhere near wherever Davie's had landed. One of the hooded figures had yanked Davie by her hair, holding a wand to her throat. Another figure stepped with a polished shoe onto Sirius' wand, giving a condescending chuckle.

"So kind of you to crawl out of your hiding place," said one of them. "You've made our job so much -"

But before they could take any action, the large wooden front doors burst open in a gust of hot wind, and Davie shielded her eyes as what seemed like a giant beam of flame shot through the door and began circling the room, causing the Death Eaters to immediately disperse. They Disapparated one by one after the surprise of being seen, but Davie collapse onto the floor, covering her face with her arms at the sight of the flames. It brought back memories - or, rather, pieces of fiction, images of her parents' last moments in the burning mansion they were raiding. The thought of her mother and father invaded her mind, the question of whether they had died separately or side by side. Was history repeating itself? Would she die here in the fire as well with Sirius?

It was not until she felt a harsh yank on her arm that she realized nothing was burning - the flames had all disappeared, and she was looking into the eyes of an enraged Severus Snape, who said nothing. He simply yanked a hold onto Sirius' arm in disgust and Apparated them back to the trees across the street from Grimmauld Place - it was so sudden and unexpected that Davie, who very rarely felt unsettled by anything in past years, felt as though she would vomit the entire contents of her stomach. Snape yanked both of them like disobedient children across the road, through the threshold, and shoved them into the receiving room, where Remus, and Molly and Arthur Weasley were waiting.

"_WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?_" He hissed angrily, eyes narrowed into menacing slits as he rounded on them - everyone else was silent. "You could have gotten yourselves killed - and while that would have been little sacrifice to _me_ -"

"Severus -"

"Davie, don't -"

"DON'T YOU TELL ME WHAT NOT TO DO!" Davie yelled, wheeling around to point a finger in Sirius' face. "Don't you dare, Sirius Black! I didn't _want_ to do this, I told you it was -"

"Are you a _child_, Maddux?" Snape interrupted, ignoring the pained expression on her face and snarling through bared teeth, his anger directed at Davie more than Sirius at this moment - Sirius, after all, everyone would have expected this from. "Are you -"

"_Severus, shut up-_"

"- back to your old propensity of -"

"Severus - _AUGH!_"

Davie let out a cry, falling to her knees as she was unprepared to transform back to her thirty-five year old self. Everyone stood by in a hushed, astonished silence as she and Sirius aged in front of their eyes until they were back to normal, back to the state they had been in when they had left the pair earlier that evening. If the circumstances had not been so grave, it would have been a most impressive piece of magic on Davie's part indeed.

Davie looked up at Snape, panting breathlessly, and he had his teeth bared in a cruel-looking smile, and it took Davie only a split second to realize how he planned to get back at her for her indiscretions. There was only one thing that would hurt Davie enough to be appropriate revenge.

"This does seem familiar," he snarled, though the expression on his face was now something akin to a very nasty smile. "You have a _brilliant plan _because of your beloved Sirius Black, and only one person is able to clean up the mess you've made -"

"What?" Sirius interrupted, and the single word caused Davie to feel that her heart had dropped into the pit of her stomach. "What are you -"

"Didn't she tell you, Black?" Snape continued with a dark chuckle, turning to Black as though he were a cat in front of whom he was dangling a tasty piece of bait. Now, even after all these years, the fact that he was standing at the edge of a precipice, teetering on the edge of crushing Sirius Black's entire universe was tantalizing. "I do hope I haven't -"

"Severus, don't you -"

"Did you ever happen to find a moment," Snape continued smoothly, rounding on Davie and standing to his full-height, sneering down at her, "to share with him why you changed your mind about joining him in Azkaban?"

"That was a _lifetime _ago, none of us need to -"

"Davie." Sirius interrupted in a grave, final tone that caused everyone to turn and face him - Remus, Molly, and Arthur glanced almost apologetically at Davie. "For _once _in his pathetic life, I want to hear what Snivellus has to say."

"I'm afraid I must oblige," Snape said, gesturing toward Sirius and shooting Davie a dark grin, and she glanced around at the others for help, only to find that there was nothing they could do. Snape reached into his pocket and pulled out a brass object that looked like an oversized locket and shoved it into Sirius' hands. "Open it."

Sirius hesitated, narrowing his eyes in suspicion, but did as directed - the locket contained a strange, milky substance that seemed to go deeper than the bauble ought to have been capable of containing. A pocket Pensieve.

"Sirius, don't -"

But before Davie could stop him he had raised the object up to his face and appeared to be hypnotized as he was submerged into one of Snape's memories. Davie did not need to ask a single question in order to know which.

* * *

_A Davina Maddux of twenty or so years was standing in a dark alleyway, though she was hardly recognizable. Her eyes were ringed with dark circles, her hair was limp and lifeless, her skin was pale - she looked almost corpse-like. She had been standing in this same spot muttering to herself for a good while, hand quivering as she stared down to her wand._

_"You want to kill," Davie said to herself in a hoarse voice, staring down at her wand intensely. One of the first things she learned about the Unforgivable Curses was that one needed to have a genuine desire to cause pain in order to cast them properly. It had to be unmistakable. "This is all for Sirius. All for - all for -"_

_She hated herself for hesitating._

_Steeling her gaze on a Muggle in the street - it would be best if it was a complete stranger - she raised her wand arm and narrowing her eyes. If she could only imagine that this unsuspecting Muggle had wronged her, that he possessed the blame for all that had happened, she could kill him. She had to kill him. But - kill, kill, kill - the word echoed in Davie's head and kept her guilt right at the surface of her thoughts. Over and over, she justified the event to herself, mumbling to herself that when so much had been taken from her, she had every right to take something away._

_This was enough to steel her resolve for the moment. Her vice grip on her wand tightened as she stood in the darkness of the alleyway, pointing her wand at the unsuspecting passerby. Her eyes narrowed, and through gritted teeth, she muttered, "Avada -"_

"_Expelliarmus."_

_Regardless of the fact that the spell was whispered, Davie just barely heard it, as she felt her wand leap from her hand and fly backwards over her head. The lack of a clatter meant that someone had caught it. Before she could turn around out of her own accord, however, she felt a hard, bony hand clasp itself onto her shoulder and turn her around so quickly that her neck very well may have snapped as she was wheeled around to face Severus Snape, who appeared so distraught and outraged at her that his pale face was alight, his nostrils flaring._

"_Why did you come?" Davie asked through narrow eyes. "Because you're one of us now? Is that the story?"_

"_You're going to kill someone for Black?" Snape sneered. "You're going to throw everything away for a mangy, pathetic -"_

"_How did you know?" Davie hissed, grabbing Snape's wrist and throwing his hand off of her shoulder as though he were burning her._

"_You've made a nasty habit of failing to lock your doors," Snape replied dismissively. "I was directed to make sure you hadn't hung yourself, being the melodramatic child that you are, and you mistakenly left your plans scribbled on your desk. You are, I must say, the most pathetic criminal I have ever met."_

"_Just as well," Davie retorted in a near-growl. "None of this would have happened if not for you. I'll kill you instead -"_

"_With your bare hands, Maddux?" Snape asked with a cold smile. "Two bare hands against two wands - you never struck me as stupid enough to try."_

"_What does it matter to you if I throw my life away?" Davie hissed, her gaze locked not on Snape's face, but on her wand in his left hand. "We established years ago, we do not consider one another worth any amount of friendship, so why? Because you're just as desperate, groping around for some sliver of something to hold onto to remind you of -"_

"_The how and the why are no longer relevant," Snape said, his jaw clearly clenched from the sudden shift in his tone. Davie had obviously struck a chord - they both knew why Snape was concerned for Davie's safety. "What matters is that you are no longer any different from me. You've lost everything. Everyone either distrusts you or thinks your insane -"_

"_Which gives me all the more reason to -"_

"_Try it." Snape sneered. "Try doing it without a wand and see -"_

_However, Snape was interrupted by Davie's thin, bony fist colliding with his face, directly at his cheekbone, temporarily stunning him so that he dropped both wands. Davie scooped hers up immediately and started off in the direction of the victim she had initially targeted, until Snape grabbed her by the wrist, yanked her harshly backward and without warning, pressed his lips mercilessly and abruptly to hers._

_Davie struggled and yanked her arms away, only to have Snape pin her arms to her sides so that she was unable to get away - in her struggle, her wand fell to the ground yet again. Davie's mind was filled with fierce emotion - anger, hate, disgust toward Severus Snape. However, all of a sudden, without explanation, a glimmer of something else filled her mind…_

_Severus was right. As much as she hated to admit it, it could not be denied that no one thought any better of her than they did of him. Davina Maddux was an outcast. She was not the same well-loved girl that Sirius loved, and even if she managed to free him from Azkaban, all she could give him was a life in which they were constantly hiding, constantly running - a fugitive and a lunatic. Severus Snape, in all her distaste for him, was all that she deserved - and a part of Davie wanted so very much to feel like she deserved something. Her struggling ceased, and, though not at all wholeheartedly, she began to return the kiss._

_

* * *

_

Sirius Black had stood in the same odd, disconnected state that one remained in while observing memories from a pensieve, and suddenly, at the point of the kiss, he only vaguely registered the fact that Snape had pulled the Pocket Pensieve out of his hands.

Snape. It had been Snape.

All this time, Sirius had thought something had happened between Davie and Moony - but never Severus Snape. Never Snivellus. All he knew was what he had seen, he could not read minds - and what he had seen was that while he was in Azkaban, Davie had betrayed him in the worst possible way. His hands were clenched into fists at his sides, shaking with fury. His nostrils flared - he wanted nothing more to tell Davie to leave his home and never come back -

- but when he looked up, the front door was open. There was a loud crack, which meant someone had apparated, and Molly and Arthur Weasley returned through the door with defeated expressions on their faces. The only person in the room who did not appear distraught was Severus Snape who bore a victorious grin. He had taken everything Sirius Black had ever held dear now. He had bested him.

* * *

_A/N's_

_I know! I'm sorry - I love Sirius too, but this is a necessary plot point! There will be more explanation of what happened after the memory Sirius just saw, but for now, please don't be too angry! Hopefully no one will be too angry to stop reading. Happier times are to come, stick with me!_

_Thanks to the following users for their feedback: **amrawo, dragonboy456, T1Pa, Penelope Halliwell, **and **AGRIMLIKEDOG** - I wish I could write more messages to you guys, but my real life schedule is getting really hectic as the summer draws to a close. I'll try not to delay much before the next chapter, in which we will see more memories, and learn more about life with the Order after Sirius' imprisonment. Also, we will have a brief glimpse at what became of an old acquaintance from earlier in the story - special shoutout to anyone who guesses who it is. Until then, cheers!  
_


	40. Chapter 40

**Chapter Forty**

A sort of silence had settled over Grimmauld Place, save for Kreacher's flitting about, and the intermittent screams of Walburga Black's portrait in the corridor. The Order came and went for briefings, but did not speak apart from that for two days.

Two days it had been since Severus Snape had handed Sirius Black the Pocket Pensieve, and two days it had since they had last seen Davina Maddux. Sirius Black insisted that it was of no consequence to him what happened to her, and that her betrayal was unforgivable. He had instead taken to drinking constantly; there was not a point in those two days, in fact, that he was not inebriated.

Needless to say, Remus Lupin had had quite enough - Severus Snape was in the decrepit study of Grimmauld Place at this particular time, going through Muggle newspapers to sift through possible evidence of any strange happenings. It was late in the evening while the students of Hogwarts would be in bed, and he would only remain there for short while before returning to the school. Remus Lupin opened the door without awaiting any invitation and stood stiffly at the other side of the desk.

"No word from Davie, as I'm sure you're aware," Lupin said with a false sense of calm in his voice. "Severus, you did not need to -"

"Are you going to lecture me? At the risk of angering a man who brews a potion upon which your life depends?" Snape sneered, not looking up from the desk. "One mistake while brewing your Wolfsbane and I could kill you -"

"Then I will have died in defense of a good friend," Remus replied stoically, a response which finally moved Snape to look up. "Davina was never anything less to you. You never considered her more than some sort of pawn in your absurd plot for revenge against James and Sirius. You only thought to claim her because you knew how much she meant to Sirius."

For a moment, Snape was silent - his face paled, his nostrils flared. He was, unbeknownst to Remus, not at all surprised that they were all so ignorant. He had never intimated his true feelings, his true motivations behind his pursuit of Davie all those years ago. "You have no idea," he began stonily, "how little I care about Black. You've changed your tune a great deal. You had no qualms about manipulating her when you thought she was insane. Where was your friendship then?"

He, still seated, stared icily at Remus, who stared back in confusion. This continued for a few brief but tense moments until Severus spoke three very simple words.

"You may go."

Remus resisted the urge to sneer, or to grimace, or to show any sort of reaction whatsoever - emotional appeals would do no good with Severus Snape. Without another word, he turned on his heel and walked out of the room - the only evidence of his frustration was his slamming of the door behind him. He tromped down the hallway and moved toward the receiving room, which was completely dark. He expected Sirius to be locked in his room as usual, only to hear his best friend's voice, coming from one of the armchairs.

"I thought it was you, Moony," he laughed drunkenly, his voice lacking any sort of genuine humor. "If it'd been you getting cozy with my fiancee, I may not have cared! If not me, then it could have at least been you! I thought -"

"Padfoot -"

"But Snape!" Sirius continued, his voice rising in volume, accompanied with a loud clatter - he had dropped the bottle of whatever he was drinking. Remus deduced that it was firewhiskey by the scent before he even lifted his wand to light a lamp in the room. "D'you reckon they shagged?"

"Padfoot!" Remus said in an outraged tone. "How could you even think -"

"THINK?" Sirius bellowed angrily, not bothering to restrain the volume of his voice. He laughed a loud, harsh, barking laugh. "I'm drunk, Moony! I'm not thinking! If I was thinking, I'd think about- about Snape's slimy, disgusting paws on my fiance while I was rotting in prison and it makes me sick, I want to vomit -"

"It's the firewhiskey, not your thoughts," Remus interrupted, glaring slightly at his best friend for this display. "I know they didn't go that far. I know better than anyone. It wasn't a secret to anyone but you -"

"That makes me feel tons better, Moony. Thank you -"

"Black."

Remus and Sirius both looked up when Snape entered the room, stalking menacingly towards the chair where Sirius was situated. Perceiving it to be a challenge, Sirius moved to stand up and face Snape, only to find himself pushed back down in the chair by Remus. Snape, meanwhile, stalked over and dropped something into the Sirius' lap before striding the remainder of the length of the room, and out the door to return to Hogwarts.

Sirius glanced down into his lap and saw the Pocket Pensieve again. Momentarily, he considered chucking it across the room, screaming to Snivellus precisely what he thought of him despite the fact that he was already gone, and demanding to be left to his misery. However, in his mind, nothing he saw would cause him any more pain. Nothing could deepen Davie's betrayal more than his own suspicions now, and so, there could be no hurt in knowing precisely what he hated her for. He fumbled with it for a moment before opening it and finding himself pulled into another one of Snape's memories…

* * *

_Sirius found himself in the memory, following Severus Snape down a corridor of the empty Maddux home - a glance at a nearby calendar showed that it still a year after Sirius had been in jail. Sirius felt his blood boil yet again, seeing Severus Snape in Davie's home - what was this memory meant to show? Was Snape going to seal his victory over Sirius by sleeping with Davie? Had Remus been wrong about the extent of this relationship? Sirius Black was no longer quite so adamant that he wanted to know._

_However, he was here, and as was the restriction in being present in a memory, he was limited to staying near Severus Snape, who continued wordlessly down the hallway. They passed the closed door closest to the stairs - Davie's bedroom where Sirius could remember being just days before. She had told the truth about never returning there, at the very least. He could not bear the thought of having slept in a bed that had last been laid in by Snape. Instead, Snape entered the study - the lights were out, but the window was open, and illuminated with a light blue tinge by the moonlight was Davie, turned and facing outside. Snape took a few stalking steps and stood behind her but did not speak. Sirius took a brief glance and saw a large canvas traveling bag on the floor near Davie._

_This, he thought to himself, his mind suddenly feeling a considerable bit more sober, did not seem to be the way that lovers approached one another._

_"Thank you for coming," Davie said, turning around slowly and facing Snape - this jolted Sirius even more because the expression on her face was intense and determined. It meant she was going to do - something, Sirius knew simply by looking at her. "Severus…"_

_Davie let out a small breath, looking him right in the eyes and reaching out for his hand. Davie had always been a very tactile sort of person, even when they were in school, and yet he slight contact seemed to surprise Snape. His eyebrows raised slightly and he nodded in gesture for Davie to continue with what she'd meant to say._

_"What we've been doing for the past month, Severus - whatever we have right now," Davie said, letting go of his hand and dropping her own hand stoically to her side. "Severus, it's been wrong."_

_"It very well has," Severus agreed, and surprise registered on Davie's thin face. She had been seeing Severus Snape for a month now, and yet she did not look any better than she had in the previous memory. "But you and I both know that nothing will be right for either of us henceforth, Maddux."_

_"No good can come of trying to fill your own emptiness by taking advantage of the emptiness of someone else," Davie continued, shaking her head. "Severus, I came to say goodbye."_

_"Clearly."_

_Davie eyes filled with disappointment. In any case, she had thought that perhaps there would be some emotion, something encouraging to depart with, and yet, Severus Snape appeared as though he were simply dismissing her from a lesson. However, this too, was evidence of the fact that despite their icy manner toward one another, Davie and Severus knew one another quite well. They never required explanations from one another. _

_"Alright then," Davie said, picking up the sack from the ground and nodding. "Lock the doors after you leave, Severus. I'll not be returning."_

_Davie took her bag and walked out of the door, while for a reason he could not understand, Sirius remained in the room and looked at Snape. He sat silently on the seat near the window, his jaw set, his fists clenched. If this had not been Snivellus, Sirius may have felt some sort of sympathy for him. However, he had no time to dwell on it before he heard Davie's voice outside._

_"Remus?"_

_"You're leaving?"_

_Sirius turned and took a few steps towards the open door, which was still in Snape's line of sight, and saw Davie and Remus standing at the top of the stairs, staring one another down._

_"Where are you going?" Remus asked, his forehead wrinkled questioningly._

_"Far away from here. You don't need to know any more, I don't want you to." Davie said simply, her voice stony and frigid as though she were not talking to one of her dearest friends. "I want to be far away from everyone here -"_

_"Because we've all tried to help you, Davie?" Remus said, attempting to reach out and pull Davie's traveling bag away from her. "Because we've tried to help you get the idea into you head that you've been throwing your life away trying to help Sirius get off on his crimes because you think -"_

_"I never only thought, I knew!" Davie said shrilly, her voice shaking with fury, and Sirius felt his stomach jolt, seeing Remus and Davie angry at one another again because of him. "Do you think I've bloody enjoyed one moment of what I've been doing? What kind of friend are you? I tried! I tried for as long as I could to have faith in him -"_

_"Because you've gone mad! You've only done all of this because you love him and refuse to admit that perhaps you were wrong in thinking he could be trusted!" Remus said - it was one of the few instances in which Remus raised his voice to anyone, and this was in fact worse than any instance in which Sirius had ever seen him. "Why do you think I bothered to interfere in your life? We've all come to terms with it, you're the only one being stupid enough -"_

_Sirius tensed when he saw Davie reach out and slap Remus hard across the face, her breaths coming loud and ragged out of fury. _

_"I am going to Bulgaria to work as an Auror." Davie said through clenched teeth. "I will never contact any of you ever again. I will never see any of you ever again. I want to forget any of you were ever a part of my life. Truth be told, you want nothing to do with a lunatic, do you?"_

* * *

When Sirius left the view of the Pensieve and found himself back in the chair, he looked up at Remus questioningly - the feeling of alcohol in his system was still present, but now drowned out with a very surreal lucidity.

"What happened next?" Sirius asked lamely. "After she left for Bulgaria. She said she never wanted to hear from you again, but you wrote her when I escaped."

"Of course, time passed. We all missed her," Remus explained. "We all tried writing her - I must have tried at least once a month. Sometimes the letter came back to me. Sometimes, I assume, she actually read them - but she never wrote back."

"What else?" Sirius asked gravely, his forehead tense as he stared hard at Remus, knowing for sure from the context of the memory that there must have been a piece missing from the puzzle. "What made her so angry with you? What else do I need to know?"

"You should know that I held stake in keeping this secret from you. I didn't only do it for Davie's sake. None of us did," Remus said, and there was a pained expression on his face, the same expression he always bore when Sirius had accused him in their youth of being the spy among them. Sirius leaned forward and eyed his friend suspiciously. "Davie didn't find out about this until - until the night before she left, I think it was."

At this, Remus pulled out his wand and touched it to his temple. When he pulled it away, it drew with it a long, silver tendril that appeared as though it were made from a shimmering sort of liquid - another memory. He directed it into the Pocket Pensieve and directed Sirius to look at it, and this time, Sirius did not hesitate.

* * *

_Remus Lupin was not sure why he had asked Severus Snape to accompany him to check on Davie on this particular day - perhaps it was because by now, she had been acting strangely for an entire year. On this particular day, they had just received the news that she had taken another trip to the island of Azkaban to attempt to get a different story from Sirius Black. _

_"We need to see what she's been up to," Remus explained stoically as he and Snape walked up the stairs of the Maddux home and into the study; Sirius noted from his vantage point of the scene that the study appeared to be the scene for many particularly traumatic memories for Davie. Remus and Snape began moving papers around the desk until they found a newspaper clipping of the scene of Sirius' arrest, the photograph circled in red ink. Magically bound to it was a piece of parchment on which was drawn a makeshift floor plan of Azkaban prison, and two words:_

_Escape. Together._

_A look of panic crossed Lupin's face, and briefly, Snape seemed to pale in concern for her too. Remus, however, wasted no time before addressing Snape, the expression on his face shifting to something that Sirius did not recognize._

_"It's obvious she's gone over the edge, we need to take desperate measures before she does something that might ruin her life," Remus stated flatly. "But she wants nothing to do with any of us anymore, you included. But you have something we don't, Severus. She can relate to how much we distrusted you."_

_"What are you asking, Lupin?"_

_"I'm not asking anything of you. I'm making a demand of you." Lupin said stonily. "Davie needs something to make her forget about Sirius. She's driving herself mad, carrying on this way. I don't care if you don't care for her in the least. I don't care if you need to pretend. It needs to be you. Molly and Arthur suggested that I do it, it would be more believable that way - but she is, as we all know, aware of my opinion regarding her choices. She'd see through me in a heartbeat."_

_"You want to lie to your friend?" Snape sneered. "You want me to distract her from her insane obsession with Black by lying to her?"_

_"You needn't pretend she was not a friend to you once. I've heard more than anyone," Remus said vaguely, thinking back to the conversation he had overheard between the pair, the night Lily's parents were killed. "It hardly ought to be a stretch. You ruined the lives of the rest of my friends, but Davie may still be able to be saved before she destroys herself."_

* * *

"She didn't choose Snape over you. Padfoot, never think that she failed you," Remus said unsurely. "She did what she did because we all failed her. We were her friends, and yet we never had faith in her. We all failed you both."

Sirius felt his stomach churn almost painfully, and this time, it was not because of the copious amounts of firewhiskey in his system. Davie had cared deeply for everyone in the Order, he knew for sure. They had been her new family - and they had treated her like an outcast because she tried so long to save him from Azkaban. Even Remus, whom she had trusted most among all those left with her, had lost faith in her. She had left because she had found out they were all manipulating her in order to force her to 'move on' the way they had.

"The letter I sent about you escaping from Azkaban was one of the few she kept," Remus added, interrupting Sirius' thoughts. He looked up at his friend, the wheels in his head turning a bit slower than her would have liked due to his current state. He did realize, however, that this was what Davie had been trying to tell him, more than once - she had not wanted to keep it a secret from him forever. He'd never given her a chance.

"Remus," he groaned, clapping a hand to his forehead which quite suddenly started to ache. He was not angry with his friend - he ought to have been, he thought, but he had long come to terms with the fact that there was a time where everyone had believed he was guilty. "Moony, you need to find her. I can't let her believe that I hate her. You need to find her."

Davina Maddux stirred slowly, and the first thing her eyes were exposed to, even through her closed eyelids, was sunlight - it was morning.

Morning? Davie mused, raising her arms shakily to rub her eyes. She wasn't sure what had happened. It took her brief moment to gather her thoughts and piece together the last thing she remembered.

She had run out of the house at Grimmauld Place out of her shame and anger, and run for a good while until she thought to Apparate to an alley across the way from the entrance to Diagon Alley. She was not thinking about where she would go, where she would end up, or what she would say when people saw her. She just wanted to get away. She stepped into the street in order to cross, and the last thing she saw was a pair of headlights attached a Muggle car.

And now, here she was, sitting in a cot - the posters on the walls informed her that she was, in fact, at St. Mungo's. Someone had clearly been kind enough to bring her here, and the tender feeling on her head and up and down her limbs was the trademark of having been tended to by a healer. She felt strangely calm - they must have given her a potion to cause that as well. No potion, however, was enough to dull Davie's intense sense of curiosity regarding her surroundings.

She felt well enough to stand - she looked down to see she was still dressed in the same clothes, which by now were rumpled beyond any state of propriety. Smoothing out the front of her clothes briefly, she stepped out of her room and realized, thanks to her familiarity with St. Mungo's, that she was close to the Memory Ward, where victims of Memory Modification were kept. That meant she could find one person for sure.

"Excuse me," she said, reaching out gently to hail one of the passing Healers. "Where can I see Mr. Digby?"

"Ah, Miss Maddux, you're up. Very good to see you," the middle-aged woman said warmly. "Romnic's right this way, I'll take you."

Davie thanked the woman quietly and followed her down perhaps a dozen doors in the long corridor before the Healer opened a door for her and nodded inside, where a man with chestnut brown hair sat at the foot of his bed, staring at his hands and mumbling to himself.

"There's - there's been no improvement, then?" Davie asked quietly. She had been one of the Aurors involved in his rescue from a Bulgarian holding house seven years prior, and they had all assumed he'd only been Confunded until he showed no recollection whatsoever of recent years. Davie had never taken it upon herself to return and to visit him since then.

"I'm afraid not. It's a very sad story, isn't it?" the Healer asked, clucking her tongue and shaking her head sadly. "Shall I give you a moment with him?"

"Yes. Yes, I would appreciate that," Davie nodded quietly. With a smile, the Healer obliged and bowed out of the room, closing the door behind her. Romnic Digby was still, Davie noted as she approached him, as handsome as ever. He still had the same boyish face, and despite the fact that he looked rather disoriented, he looked quite well. "Rom?" she said quietly. He looked up and immediately, his face burst into a wide, child-like grin.

"Little Lady! You've come to see me," he said in a elated yet strange voice, as though his mind were somewhere far, far away.

"Yes," she said, smiling weakly and nodding, though when his attention wandered, her expression immediately fell. "You know," she said sadly, letting out a heaving sigh, "this is all your fault. If it hadn't been you they'd spotted - if I'd never met you - I wouldn't have left Sirius alone the night Lily and James died. I would have been there with him and - and none of this -"

"We're going to the ball, aren't we?" Romnic piped in without provocation, without even looking up, and Davie, who was beginning to tear up, let out another sigh. His memories stopped when they were still in school. That was all that he had been left with.

"Some friend you are," Davie said, her tone sounding regretful and crushed, and yet somehow enlightened at the same time. "I wish I'd never gone after you. I wish I'd never met you."

Romnic looked up at this, and Davie felt a jolt when for a brief moment, something like lucidity flashed through Rom's eyes. He opened his mouth, and Davie leaned forward anxiously - but what he would have said, Davie did not know, because at the moment, the door swung open. Romnic and Davie looked up to find Remus Lupin standing in the doorway.

"Davie," he said hesitantly, noticing how the woman recoiled at the sight of him. "I'm here to bring you home. Padfoot asked -"

"Asked! Oh, Remus - why would he ask me to come back?" Davie retorted, laughing coldly. "So he can kill me himself? I'd rather stay here and chat with Rom, and he doesn't even have a bloody clue that he's almost forty -"

"Severus and I showed him," Remus interrupted quickly, effectively silencing the dark-haired woman. "We showed him what happened, why you and Severus - oh, Davie. Just please, come back. He needs you."

"Why are you going to the dance with me anyway, Little Lady?" Romnic interrupted with a distant, good-humored chuckle. "Everyone in our year knows Sirius Black is arse-over-elbows in love with you."

Davie felt as though she'd just been doused with cold water - Romnic had known all those years ago that Sirius had loved her. All the signs pointed in the same direction, and that direction was clearly back towards Grimmauld Place.

Davie was not sure where exactly her mind was while she followed Remus back to Grimmauld Place, but she simply allowed herself to be led until she was brought back to the front door, the same door that she had run out of days earlier. She held her breath as she crossed the threshold, and felt her heart nearly palpitate at the sight of Sirius Black, drunk on the floor, leaning lazily against the leg of a table. He was, however, lucid enough to look up and notice Davie enter, and he blinked, rubbing his eyes incredulously.

"You're drunk," she said dolefully, hurrying over to him, and Lupin smiled upon seeing that Davie couldn't resist the urge to take care of him. "You're completely sloshed, aren't you? You're unbelievable -"

"Is that what you came here to say?" Sirius drawled, swatting Davie's hand away gently as she attempted to pull him to better posture. She huffed, a sad expression crossing her face.

"Well, I would've liked to say this to you with some assurance that you'd be sober enough to remember it tomorrow - but I'm sorry, Sirius," she said gently, reaching out and hesitantly touching her fingertips to his forearm. "I tried to tell you -"

"Davie, if you ever run away like that again I'm going to - to run out after you no matter who sees - and get sent to Azkaban all over again and we'll see how you f-feel -" Sirius drawled, squinting slightly, though he was slowly starting to grow more focused. Apparently, he had at least stopped drinking a good while earlier, and the effect was finally starting to wear off.

"Don't say that," Davie said stonily, pulling back and grimacing. "I never -"

"I don't care about anything I saw," Sirius said with surprising clarity. "But I'm - I'm going to ask you for one th-thing and we can consider it all forgotten. Admit I was right," he drawled, pointing his finger lazily. Davie's brow furrowed, not quite understanding what he meant. "You didn't want to marry me fifteen years ago because you wanted to wait until the war was over, well it's not over -"

"Sirius, what are -"

"All this has happened and it's still not over!" he said, flailing his arm emphatically. "How much longer are you going to ask me to wait?"

Davie fell silent, blinking incredulously, her mouth hanging open slightly. "Sirius," she said slowly, making sure he didn't complete steamroll over her again. "What are you trying to say?"

"Davie - I told you before," he said, now speaking quite lucidly. "You wanted to wait until it was all over before you started a life with me, and it's still not over. We've lost our best friends, we've lost our freedom, we've lost almost everything, and it's still not over. It may never be over -"

"Sirius, don't talk like -"

"So say 'yes' now," Sirius said simply, grasping Davie's forearm and pulling her closer so that she was forced to look him in the eye. "Now that I know everything, and everything's on the table, I'm going to ask you again. Marry me."

Davie tensed; she could not believe what Sirius was saying. She could not believe that Severus Snape had been willing to repair what had been broken despite the fact that he quite obviously enjoyed seeing Sirius Black completely destroyed. Why, Davie wondered, was the universe still conspiring to keep her and Sirius together after all these years, after all Davie had done just for the sake of forgetting? More importantly, why was Sirius forgiving her so quickly when it had been over a decade without her forgiving herself? How did things seem to want to repair themselves so easily when Davie had long believed that they were beyond all fixing?

"I will," Davie replied before she could even stop herself or develop some sort of reason to refuse. Her hands gripped tightly on his sleeves, her voice quavering as it suddenly dawned on her what she'd just said. "Sirius, I never meant for it to be like this - never. All these years, I never loved anyone else but you -"

"Nor did I," Sirius said slowly, but suddenly, an impish grin dawned upon his face as he tipped Davie's chin upward with his fingertips. "But then again, the pickings have been a bit slim where I'd been for most of the - oof!"

Sirius was interrupted by a small throw cushion colliding with his face, followed by the sight of Davina Maddux, looking torn between laughing hysterically and bawling.

"I'm trying to have a moment, you prat, do you mind?"

"We're getting married," Sirius chuckled with an extremely satisfied grin on his face. "We'll have the rest of our lives to have moments if you so choose, though I can't say I'd -"

And again he was interrupted, this time by Davie pressing her lips eagerly to his - and it suddenly did not matter that Molly and Arthur Weasley were arriving in from the kitchen, or that Remus had been in the room the entire time. Suddenly, things seemed at least a little bit more like how they were supposed to be.

* * *

_A/N's_

_Hello everyone, if you're still out there!_

_I know I have been on hiatus for a long time, and I'm partially still in the same boat, but I did want to at least give you guys what I could. I feel like I need to explain my absence, so here it goes._

_On August fifth, my grandma and I were crossing the street in front of the elementary school near my house when I was hit by a car - long story short, I suffered from a few injuries and a long-lasting concussion, and I'm still dealing with the medical issues that have come up as a result. I also need to manage going to school full time, along with legal stuff and my recovery. But I will come back to this story, and I will still be posting updates whenever possible. I just hope you guys can all be patient with me while I work on getting back to normal._

_I want to keep this quick so I can post the chapter already, so - thank you to everyone who provided feedback and subscribed since my last update, and a special shout out to AddictedToPotter for my hundredth review!_

_In the next chapter, we will see more memories, and in upcoming chapters we will see how these new circumstances change the atmosphere in Grimmauld Place. We are going to get a couple of happy chapters, but I am going to remind everyone that this does take place in Order of the Phoenix. Until next time, everyone! Cheers!_


	41. Chapter 41

****

Chapter Forty-One

Severus Snape was wary about being called away from the school at any point, especially to meet anywhere as seedy the Hog's Head in Hogsmeade village. His only clue regarding this summons was that it been writing by wandwork, not by hand. The handwriting was anonymous and without ornaments or nuance - a security measure, most likely, so it was a fair bet to say that the person who had sent him the note was not a complete oaf. That ruled out half of the Death Eaters with whom he was acquainted.

Suspicion rose without halt when Snape was directed by the barkeep, Aberforth, to proceed upstairs to one of the rented rooms - it was never someone of a reputable or desirable sort who booked a room at the Hog's Head nowadays. He had his wand drawn before he even reached the top of the stairway. It was the middle of the week, and no one else seemed to have a room booked on that floor or any other. When he opened the door to which he had been directed, he immediately pointed his wand at a figure in the room, wearing a traveling cloak with their back turned through the door.

"Turn and face the door," Severus snarled sharply, clearly in no mood for mysterious figures of any sort. "Drop your wand -"

"An Auror _never _surrenders their wand," came the voice under the cloak, which was soon accompanied by the face of Davina Maddux, who turned and pulled the hood off of her head with one hand, twirling her wand idly in the other. "I'm surprised you were able to come, with what I've heard about _'Umpback Whale_-"

"Black's tendency to use the most asinine nicknames has rubbed off on you, I see." Snape interrupted sourly. "I'll take it that the _joyous reunion_ has already taken place," he sneered without the slightest inkling of joy in his expression. "Pity that I missed it, I'm sure you made quite the spectacle of yourselves as always."

"He asked me to marry him."

Davie's sudden interruption seemed to hush Snape's snark, for reasons Davie was unable to fathom but was thankful for nonetheless.

"You were," Snape began, regaining his stony composure, "completely and absolutely foolish -"

"For running off again, I know." Davie said flatly. The word 'again', Snape quite visibly noted. "But - Remus told me about what you did. I can't thank you enough, especially knowing how much you hate Sirius."

"Your sentimentality is unnecessary," Snape replied flatly, though he paused and his brow furrowed when Davie reached out and clasped her hand on top of one of his - coming from Davina Maddux, it was such a common gesture. It was a kindness she allotted towards everyone, much like Lily Potter did. "We both know very well why I bothered with something that left such a bad taste in my mouth. We both know the only reason I would ever do anything in Sirius Black's interest -"

"Why can't you just _say_ it?" Davie asked gently, grimacing and shaking her head. "Severus, no one can even hear you here, why can't you just say her name?"

"Did you ever once say in any explicit terms that I was simply a makeshift poultice over the wound left by the loss of your precious Sirius Black ten years ago?" Snape retorted in a smooth, cold voice. "Not once, Maddux." Davie would have recoiled and considered this conversation with Severus Snape a lost cause, except for the fact that he had not yanked his hand away from hers. No matter how putrid the venom in his words may have been, that simple lack of action was encouragement enough.

"I only came to thank you," Davie continued steadily, in a voice whose cadre seemed far stronger than suited to a woman of her stature. "For all of this, for doing what I ought to have had the integrity to do from the start."

Snape stiffened and looked away, and felt quite compelled to end the conversation and send the woman home when suddenly, she spoke up again.

"I lied to you."

For once, Snape's brow furrowed in visible surprise and confusion - emotions that he was indignant to ever display - as Davie pulled out the Pocket Pensieve he had showed into Black's hands. She pulled out her wand and held it to her own forehead, pulling a long, indistinct sliver from her temple: a memory. Guiding it into the Pensieve with the tip of her wand, she placed it into Snape's hand.

* * *

_Lily Potter was in tears, sitting alone in a room packing baby Harry's things into a bag. They would need to take everything, as they were going to be away for possibly a very long time. Davie, however, walked into the room, shutting the door behind her - one hand held something tightly behind her back, her face was nervous, as though she was afraid of what she was about to do._

_"Lily - Lily, wait," she spoke up, causing the young auburn-haired woman to flinch before looking up at her best friend, who gave a weak, apologetic smile. "I know this is a bad time. The worst time, really. But I made a promise a long time ago and I don't know how long it will be before I have another chance to keep it."_

_Before Lily had a chance to ask what her best friend was rambling about when Davie held out a rumpled, yellowed piece of parchment with a flat, crispy look to it that indicated it had spent a great deal of time pressed flat._

_"Please, Lily," Davie pleaded, her voice shaking just as much as her hand as Lily hesitantly took the paper, broke the wax seal that had become brittle with age, and read the letter._

_Its contents, Davie did not know - she could only guess that it was a confession of the feelings of one Severus Snape, who had handed the letter to her years ago. The expression on Lily's face, a mixture of fear, confusion, and sadness, seemed only to confirm Davie's suspicions._

_"I'm -" Lily began slowly after a good minute or so of silence. "I don't -"_

_"I'm sorry," Davie said quickly, kneeling next to her best friend - the two girls looked at one another's faces, and for perhaps the first time, they really looked, and found that so much in either face had changed. The youthful glimmer in their porcelain skin seemed to be overcast with a sort of shadow that came with growing up too fast. Davie was no longer the old Davie. Lily was no long the old Lily. "I've had it for a long time. Years - maybe if I had given it to you sooner -"_

_"We could have saved him?" Lily asked, her forehead wrinkling questioningly, eyeing her friend with an unfamiliar sort of curiosity. "No. No, we couldn't have, Davie. I'm where I'm meant to be and I'm going where I'm meant to be going -"_

_"Meant to be going!" Davie repeated in a quiet but poignant scoff. "What if - what if we'd all chosen a different life? He loved you-"_

_"And judging by what he's done, he clearly does not anymore," Lily said in a prim yet somehow still scathing voice. "I wish things weren't this way too," Lily said, noting the crestfallen expression on Davie's face - Davie had always been the one to step in, and while Lily had never uttered such a sentiment, she resented Severus also for using her best friend to get to her. "He was my very first friend in all of this - all this magic and wizardry and everything that I am now. My heart aches for him, Davie. It really does."_

_"I wish you could forgive him," Davie said quietly, her voice distant and confused - she very deeply only wanted for something to make this go away, for something to heal the wounds that had been created and allow them all to start again and make different decisions. "Even if he never knows, I wish you would -"_

_"Not everyone deserves to be forgiven," Lily said, shaking her head solemnly, and Davie flinched visibly - the single sentiment cemented the fact that the two young women who had been inseparable and very much a package had grown into such different people. "Not everyone can be saved. You, James, Harry, all of our friends in the Order - you can't expect me to forgive someone who at any time could have taken you from me without even a grain of remorse."_

_"But -"_

_"Davie, please." Lily said, holding up her hand and closing the hatch on her suitcase with a sort of finality that even after all these years, Davie knew could not be argued with. "Everyone makes a choice. Everyone. And every choice has consequences. You of all people know that."_

_For a moment, Davie stared at her friend with confusion, until the thought really sank in - the decision to become an Auror, to join the Order, to not marry Sirius - all of it had shaped the Davina Maddux that Davie had become. Silently, she made to stand up, but while she was still partially bent, she reached over and held Lily's hand which still contained the letter, clenching it tightly._

_"Just keep it, then. Even if you do nothing, keep it." Davie insisted in the soft, childlike voice that Lily had never been able to refuse from her best friend. "People can change. They change a little every day, and you never see it until it's too late."_

_

* * *

_

Severus emerged from the memory with a very grim expression on his face, his eyes planted sternly at a nondescript spot on the floor.

"You led me to believe that she never received the letter." he said, his jaw clenched tightly. The lower hood of his eye gave a slight twitch as he struggled to maintain this steady countenance. He couldn't say Lily's name for worry of being unable to manage the task. "You explicitly said -"

"I wanted to hurt you. I wanted you to feel what I was feeling." Davie said, her eyes darkening in a way they only did when she spoke with Severus, because there was a sort of darkness in desperation that only he was able to force her to come to terms with. "Sirius was in Azkaban, Lily and James were dead, and I'd never shown to any of them the measure of how much they were worth to me, and by Merlin, I wanted to make sure you felt it too because it was all because of you. I wanted it to hurt as much as possible. And I know it worked just as well as I meant it to." Davie continued, and she could not help her lips from curling into a brief sneer, though this faded quickly.

Snape stared for a moment, eyes stonily locked onto Davie, whose expression mirrored the same calculating hesitation. It continued this way until he spoke two simple words.

"Thank you -"

"You don't -"

"But I do need to ask why you chose to remedy this circumstance _now_ that it makes no difference." Snape said stiffly, his eyes trained questioningly on Davie. "What reason is there?"

"Because you told Sirius the truth. You gave me back my life," Davie is a voice that was so lacking in melodrama that somehow it did not seem over sentimental. "And I may not have been able to do the same for you but I owed you this much."

"You're a fool." Snape replied, and Davie gave no reaction. Being called foolish by Severus Snape was a bit like breathing. It was natural and could hardly be helped. "You risked being seen by Umbridge for this. We haven't even found a way to reveal that you're alive that won't endanger your life. If you were as good an Auror as they say, your fiance is an unfortunately bad influence on you."

Davie gave an almost imperceptible nod before pulling her hood back over her head and starting towards the door - but first, she turned and faced him once more.

"How is Harry?" she asked carefully, crossing her arms over herself.

"At this very moment, I have reason to believe that he is in detention with Dolores Umbridge. And I've also reason to believe that Professor Umbridge has an affinity for - leave a _lasting_ impression," Snape said vaguely, but this in and of itself was enough to cause a very familiar glint to appear in Davie's eyes. It went without saying that something bad was happening to Harry.

"And you're just _allowing _this to happen?" Davie asked, eyes narrowed. "I have to go there - I'm still an Auror, I still work for the Ministry, and -"

"And you are _severely _outranked by Dolores Umbridge, she'll have your head, and you'll be no use to us then," Severus said, his lip curling in slight disgust at her reaction. "As a member of the Order, you will be updated duly regarding Mister Potter, and he will be duly informed of recent developments between yourself and his godfather. I would now, however, recommend you return to Headquarters before your fiance is no longer able to tolerate your absence," he continued with seamless condescension. Accustomed to it, Davie gave a slightly sour succinct nod before stepping out into the dark hallway and Disapparating with a crack.

Once she was gone, Severus Snape gave a shuddering, heaving breath, drooping into a nearby chair and burying his head in his hands.

* * *

_A/N's_

_Hello and Happy Thanksgiving! I'm back!_

_I know it's been far too long since I last updated, but I have not forgotten about this story. So I hope you haven't forgotten about me! I have been having a lot of real-life trouble, after my accident. Long story short, there are a lot of legal issues, and that along with my studies have taken up a lot of my time. However, after watching Deathly Hallows Part One (which I would love to hear my reviewers' thoughts about, by the way) finally reviewed my muse. And so, I am taking the opportunity with my week off from school to get further in this story. It's all planned out, just needs to be written._

_I want to say thank you for all the feedback I have received since my last update, though I'm again hard-pressed to go through everyone one-by-one. I want to especially say thanks to those of you who sent me personal get-well messages after my accident._

_I hope to have the next chapter up very soon! I also apologize for typos, I haven't had much of a chance to proofread in my hurry to get this posted. I hope you all enjoy nonetheless. Cheers!_


	42. Chapter 42

**Chapter Forty-Two**

_September the Seventh, Nineteen-Hundred Ninety-Five_

"'Wos that?" Sirius asked groggily as he walked down the stairs into the receiving room at Grimmauld Place, glancing around for Davie - she'd insisted the previous night that she had a very important task to fulfill that required her to go alone to Hogsmeade, and Sirius To his surprise, when he woke well into the _next _evening as he had a tendency of doing since he was locked up in the house, he found Davie curled in her usual armchair, looking quite enthralled in a magazine article - this would not be unusual if not for the fact that she was under nearly the same orders as himself, which were to remain inside. There were no magazine vendors inside this home, Sirius was very much assured. Davie looked up from her copy of the Quibbler, eyes glinting.

"Nicked it on my way back home last night -"

"_Nicked it_!" Sirius scoffed, kneeling on the ground in front of the chair. "You, Miss Perfect Auror! Miss by the book, you - _what the bloody hell is that_?" Sirius said, snatching it from her hands when he realized that one of the stories featured on the cover contained his name in the headline.

"There's a woman in here you're bound to love - she truly believes you're innocent," Davie said matter-of-factly, snatching it back and flipping to the particular page which he seemed to be too flustered to find. "This is fascinating. Here," she said, laying it flat and beginning to read the piece to him in an animated, theatrical tone.

_"What people don't realize is that Sirius Black is a false name," says Mrs. Purkiss. "The man people believe to be Sirius Black is actually Stubby Boardman, lead singer of the popular singing group the Hob Goblins…"_

"What?" Sirius snapped, wrinkling his entire face in confusion as Davie's face reddened brightly in attempts not to laugh. "The woman's absolutely - I don't believe you. Where does she get the ridiculous idea that I-?"

"It's not _done_ yet," Davie said, unable to help her laughter now. "Here, let me finish: _Now, Stubby couldn't possibly have committed those crimes, because on the day in question he happened to be enjoying a romantic candlelit dinner with me _-"

"It doesn't say that - you're joking, give it to -"

"Right here, it says!" Davie laughed, pointing out the particular passage which Sirius had to read in order to even believe. "There you have it, this woman knows you're innocent -"

"She's hideous!" Sirius said, his upper lip curling as he dropped the magazine onto the ground after he glanced a photo on the next page of the story of an older witch winking and waving in a manner quite unbefitting her age. Davie now laughed loudly, shaking her head, and for a brief moment as they both laughed so hard that their eyes were clenched shut, it was easy to imagine that they were back in the Gryffindor common room, with Lily and James in the sofa across from them. It nearly felt right.

When the laughter subsided and the pretending ceased however, a strange quiet settle over them - it was brief, but the same thing seemed to happen frequently in the days that followed their engagement. It was a time of adjusting, of realizing that things were in fact not the same, and there were things that required them to change accordingly. Their friends were gone.

In order to break the tension, Sirius got up and went to the kitchen to find them something to eat. By now, Davie knew that these sudden departures were not so much a sign of anger or anything being wrong between them, but the only way Sirius knew to ease an awkward moment, to allow Davie to think of a way to return things to normalcy. Now, however, he returned with a plate of jam and crackers, took Davie by the wrist, and tugged her to the end of a hallway. Instead of saying anything to her, he picked up a cracker with bright maroon jam and gave it a hearty chuck down the hallway, where Davie heard the faint sound of it hitting something - followed by loud, shrill screaming -

"_INFIDELS! DEFACING THE MOST NOBLE HOUSE OF -"_

"Sirius!" Davie said in a shrill, scandalized tone, shouting over the woman's voice at the end of the hall - she realized that Sirius had been chucking food at the portrait of his mother, Walburga Black.

"Well, how else are we supposed to entertain ourselves in this bloody hole?" Sirius said with a sneer, throwing another particularly sticky cracker down the hallway and eliciting another round of screams. He gave a hearty guffaw before dipping another cracker in jam and holding it out to Davie, who, instead of throwing it, popped the entire thing into her mouth.

"She's your mum!" Davie protested after swallowing the mouthful. "And she's - well, she's dead! I can't chuck food at a dead woman! Besides, it's wasteful."

"It's not a dead woman, it's a _picture_ of a dead woman!"

"She's your _mum_!" Davie said, crossing her arms and shaking her head resolutely. "I wouldn't want you chucking anything at _my_ mum -"

"And I wouldn't dream of trying it," Sirius insisted, raising his eyebrows and raising his eyebrows as though there was nothing immature about what he was doing. "Because your mum was a kind, lovely human being. I don't think anyone would say the same about -"

But Sirius' gaze quickly moved away when a small figure appeared at the end of the hall - Kreacher had apparated into the corridor in response to the screaming, and Sirius gave a loud, bark-like noise to get the small house elf's attention.

"Kreacher!" Sirius laughed, waving the small being over - he apparated in front of them with a crack with a grudging expression, glancing over his shoulder at the screaming portrait behind him. "Say hello to your new mistress, Kreacher -"

"Sirius, please, don't make him -"

"Kreacher does not need a new Mistress. Kreacher will not have a new Mistress," he sneered in a voice that was laced with venom, which surprised even Davie. "Kreacher is satisfied to serve the Mistress he already has -"

"Excuse me?" Davie interrupted, sensing something strange and cryptic in the elf's tone; it was something difficult to pick up, and only barely perceptible to Davie, even after over a decade of interrogating experience, but before receiving any answer, Kreacher disappeared with another crack.

"He means my mum, obviously," Sirius said dismissively, despite the fact that Davie did not look entirely convinced. "He's always been a bit unstable in the head. All house elves are, I think - too close to the master's shoe polish all day, the lack of fresh air could be a part of it."

Davie, however, was still not too sure. Sirius gave a dismissive hack of a laugh and began to tug her over.

"Come on, then - since we're getting married, you might as well meet mum. We'll make it quick and painless," Sirius said with a mischievous grin. Davie knew that there was little good to come of this, considering that all through their youth, Sirius had taken particular mirth in making his mother angry - something, it appeared, could not be stopped, even by her death. She was about to protest when she heard the loud screeching almost directly in front of her - it was too late.

"MUDBLOOD FILTH! LOATHSOME SCOURGE TO THE -"

"Oh, get stuffed, mum!" Sirius bellowed loudly. "Is that any way to greet your future daughter-in-law?"

"Sirius, I don't think -"

"_INFIDEL! BLOOD TRAITOR! NO SON OF MINE -"_

"Walburga Black," Sirius said in a loud, theatric voice. "Meet Davina Astrid Maddux."

And at that, the woman in the portrait fell silent. For a moment, she scrutinized Davie terribly - from beneath her dark, pilled cotton jumper, Davie felt her skin prickle under the gaze, even if it did not even technically come from a _person_. "Maddux? Merlin be damned!" She barked in a strange, recognizant tone. "Come closer."

Davie glanced at Sirius, who looked equally surprised, before taking a small step forward.

"Who are you to Apollo Maddux?"

"Grampy?" Davie asked, her brow creasing deeply, and this reaction seemed to intrigue Sirius' mother even more. Memories flashed across Davie's mind of an old man bouncing her on his knee when she was tiny. Her grandfather, before he passed away, was always the one to watch young Davie when her parents were called away by the Ministry - while he himself had once worked at the Ministry, he had retired when he'd reached a ripe old age and taken up a leisurely job at Honeydukes to keep himself active, and this was what had sparked Davie's well-known love for fudge. "Apollo Excelsis Maddux is my grandfather - my father's father -"

"Your father is Ephraim."

"Emerson." Davie corrected carefully. "Uncle Ephraim never had any children. Died in a dragon-taming exhibition."

"Emerson Odin Maddux. Married a good Pureblood witch as well." Walburga Black said in a dusty, appraising tone. "Celesta Hera of the House of Everknoll - a bloodline to rival the Malfoys, even the most Noble House of Black. What interest have you in my older son?"

"I've known him since we were in school," she replied simply, giving Sirius a sidelong glance as though asking him to intervene before she had to speak to this woman for any extended period of time - Davie, needless to say, found Walburga Black's familiarity with her ancestry a bit disconcerting.

"He is an _embarrassment. _I have," Walburga said with a slight sneer in Sirius' direction, "_another_ son -"

"Shove it, mum, Regulus is dead!" Sirius roared, chucking another cracker at the portrait from close range before taking Davie by the arm and yanking her abruptly back to the receiving room. He settled into Davie's usual chair, and she sat on the armrest next to him.

"I thought you were joking. That woman is insane," Davie said in a conspiratorial whisper, running a hand through her hair in disbelief, pausing to give her scalp a brisk massage as though she felt she'd hit her head. "She's not even alive and she's still completely -"

"Smitten with you, by the looks of it," Sirius said with a chuckle, shaking his head. "But she _is_ mad. Why do you think I never introduced you? She may have not put me out of the house if she knew I was courting the - the _spawn_ of the most pure houses of Maddux and Everknoll," Sirius guffawed, earning a pained expression from his fiancee. "I reckon if she were alive, she'd have invited you to _live_ in our home, spend every waking moment with her -"

"And do what, exactly?" Davie asked in a comically fearful tone that Sirius couldn't help continue laughing at. "Have tea? Bake a Victoria sandwich cake? Mangle baby puffskeins over a couple of cold gillywaters?"

Davie groaned, sitting on the small table in front of Sirius' chair, and her expression shifted from being quite funny, to suddenly quite grave. Davie had always been aware of the fact that she was a Pureblood - it was hard to avoid knowing such things in the magical community. However, she was not entirely sure how to handle it when others made a disproportionately big deal of it. She and Sirius were among the purest of the Purebloods. If the world did not change, would their children feel the same way about the way other wizards reacted to them?

"You're worried what people will think - they'll think you and I are just like my mum," Sirius said with a knowing, lopsided grin as he reached out and tipped Davie's chin upward to jostle her from her thoughts, which were growing a bit too deep for his liking. "I know. I've thought it too. But being your own person doesn't always mean doing the opposite of what you're told. Sometimes, it's doing what others tell you, but for your own reasons. Two Purebloods don't always need to get married solely for the fact that they're Purebloods."

Davie looked up with an incredulous smile - while Sirius was far from brainless, such introspective wisdom was far from normal coming from him. A part of her knew it was optimistic to even think a day would come that their children could ever be out in the open without having the Ministry breathing down their necks, but it was something to hold onto. Davie moved and squeezed into the space left in the armchair next to Sirius, nestling into his side with a sigh.

"In deep thought again," Sirius said with a chuckle, running his hand over the back of Davie's long, dark hair. "Woman, what in Merlin's name am I going to do with you?"

Davie gave a slight harrumph and was about to protest when Hedwig came swooping it - the snowy white owl had by now learned how the latches on the upstairs window worked so she could come inside without being let in. She quickly dropped a letter onto Sirius lap which was labeled 'Snuffles' before swooping out to return to Hogwarts.

Sirius hurried to open it, with Davie reading eagerly over his shoulder.

_Dear Snuffles,_

_Hope you're okay, the first week back here's been terrible. I'm really glad it's the weekend. _

_We've got a new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Umbridge. She's nearly as nice as your mum. I'm writing because that thing I wrote to you about last summer happened again last night when I was doing a detention with Umbridge -_

"I knew there was no good to come of it," Davie muttered, her expression turning grave. "I knew there would be something wrong with that woman being alone with Harry."

_-We're all missing our biggest friend, and we hope he'll be back soon._

_Please write back quickly._

_Best,_

_Harry (1)_

Sirius first looked up at Davie, forehead wrinkling. "What do you mean, you knew there was no good to come of it?" he asked. "You knew about this Umbridge woman -"

"Severus told me she's been keeping Harry in detention last night, but he didn't let me come up to the school to see," Davie said simply, snatching the letter from Sirius' hand and glancing it over to examine it. "You don't think Harry's put a Rearranging Charm on this letter, do you?" she asked, pulling out her wand from her pocket. "Maybe he's mentioned something more."

"No - Harry doesn't usually do that sort of thing when he writes. It is what it is," Sirius said haughtily, his tone going slightly sour at the mention of Snape, and the fact that he and Davie knew something about Harry which he himself did not. "I need to write him back -"

"We don't have an owl, and we can't get our hands on one that won't be traced," Davie chided, sounding very much like _herself_ now. "Besides, there's - well, there's more that you ought to know."

With a doleful expression, Davie reached into the pocket of her traveling cloak, which was lain messily on the other armchair, and pulled up a tightly folded copy of the Daily Prophet, the previous date's evening edition. She opened it to a particular page and held it out to Sirius, but now with the same childlike glee with which she had shown him the story in the Quibbler.

"_The Ministry of Magic has received a tip-off from a reliable source that Sirius Black, notorious mass murderer - is currently hiding in London._" Sirius read aloud in a tight voice. "Brilliant. I'll never be out of here now."

"I'll bet my life it was Lucius," Davie said gravely. "The day on the platform when you brought Harry - the Deatheaters' appearing that night at my parents' house -"

"_Snape _saw us while we went to the school. Snape knew we were able to change into our younger selves, and he happened to be the one there to save us. Snape knew I'd accompany Harry to King's Cross." Sirius sneered. "Or are you going to defend him again and say it couldn't possibly be him?"

"I don't think it could be," Davie affirmed, sitting up straight and crossing her arms defiantly. "And it won't do us any good to argue about it right now. We need to get in touch with Harry, and it's going to take something very risky."

She stood up and walked over to the fireplace, picking up a burl jar and lifting the lid and checking to contents for their quality after having remained in Grimmauld Place for Merlin knew how long. After she was convinced that it was still in proper condition, she nodded, holding it out to Sirius. "Firetalking is the only option we have at the moment. Do a brief check every hour. We need to speak with Harry."

* * *

_A/N's_

_(1) Lifted directly from Order of the Phoenix_

_Just a quick note, in the coming chapters, there will be a few passages that are lifted and paraphrased from Order of the Phoenix, except of course rewritten to have Davie in them. The story won 't be limited to what we see in OOTP however, so please stay tuned!_

_May I just say that I am elated that my readers have stuck around despite my absence? To __**Rock'xanne**__, I'm delighted beyond belief that my characters come off as real. I'm trying my best to develop of my characters and give them a realistic set of thoughts and feelings given their situation. To __**amrawo**__, I'm glad to see your reviews! _

_To __**AddictedToPotter**__, your review had me scared for a moment when it started off "So this story in general is sort of depressing" - but I'm very glad you like it anyway! I'll admit, it's not the most feel-good story with how it's turned out, but let me just assure you (and all my readers) that while the ending is far from happily ever after, things do come together in the end well enough. Also, in response to your critique of DH Part One - I agree with you completely! I do think there could have been a lot more about the Grindlewald backstory, and more about how Book-Harry has some idea about more of the Horcruxes. And your reference to the dance scene and the nods to Harry/Hermione actually give me a brilliant segue to something I wanted to bring up!_

_Some chapters back, I mentioned wanting to write another story with Davie and Sirius' child which would be AU, assuming that Davie had said yes when Sirius first proposed to her. I am actually in the process of starting it, except that the plot bunny because a bit more AU than I had first planned, in which the child plays the role of the Hermione-character in the trio, and Hermione has a different fate in the story which Ron/Hermione shippers will still like. I do want some feedback from you guys, however, if this story is something you guys would like me to post for you guys to read, or if it should remain my private little unpublished project. Feedback is of course appreciated!_

_Thank you also to __**WalkingEnigma**__, __**galita**__, and __**Ellipse27 **__for subscribing!_

_The next few of chapters will be a lot of exposition and minor foreshadowing. Hopefully this chapter finds you all well, and I hope to see feedback from everyone! Cheers!_


	43. Chapter 43

**Chapter Forty-Three**

"_You've been popping into the fire every hour?"_

Davie was unable to abstain from grinning a bit at the joy in both Harry and Sirius' voices when Sirius was finally able to reach Harry over the fireplace. Out of reverence towards the bond that the two shared, Davie kept a respectful distance, listening to what she could manage from behind Sirius over the crackle of the flame. However, when the conversation began to take a more delicate turn, Davie's ears seemed to perk up cautiously.

"I was thinking," Sirius said in what Davie was very sure was a hopeful, expectant tone - one that he used right when he was about to suggest something that should not be done by any means. "We got away with the dog disguise at the station, didn't we? I thought I could -"

"_NO!_"

The response seemed to have come at Sirius from all sides - from Harry and Hermione at one end, and Davie from the other, and briefly, Sirius wheeled around to glance at his fiancee with his forehead wrinkled in annoyance. As Sirius made to argue and protest with the refusal, Davie finally nudged her way into view of the teenagers in the Gryffindor common room

"Listen, Harry, you'll want to lay low with Umbridge while you can," she insisted. "I've met the woman - only in passing when she was starting at the Ministry and - Sirius, would you give me a moment?" Davie squealed as Sirius nudged her out of the way, looking a bit surly.

"It was just an idea, you know," Sirius interrupted before Davie was able to finish her warning about Umbridge. "Thought you might like to get together -"

Davie groaned and backed away from the fireplace as Sirius abruptly ended the conversation with Harry then moved to the armchair, propping his feet up on the table and crossing his arms, reaching out for a bottle of firewhiskey that he stowed underneath the chair for times that he felt a bit less than chipper. Davie rolled her eyes and snatched it out of his hands.

"He's only looking out for your best interests -"

"That's _my_ job, isn't it?" Sirius growled in annoyance as Davie held the bottle out of his reach. "And of course you'd say so."

"What's that ought to mean?"

"Your idea of _errands_!" Sirius retorted with a derisive snort. "Running off in the dead of night to see Snivellus and nick a couple of magazines to keep yourself occupied! It must be pleasant, being able to run off and do as you please -"

"You act as though I went to see him on a social call!"

"You act as though it couldn't have waited until he came _here_! He does so at least once a week -"

"This is _useless_," Davie huffed, giving the bottle a hard slam down on the table and making to walk away. She wheeled around the armchairs, past Sirius, and into the bedroom, slamming the door behind her. Sirius glared at the door for a moment before reaching out and swiping the bottle off the table, opening it and taking a swig. However, when the door did not open again to reveal a calmer, less angry Davie, Sirius seemed quite perturbed.

A part of him actually ached for the fights they _used_ to have, where they'd be angry for a few moments, perhaps throw things at one another, and emerge laughing at ridiculous they had been. He did not very much enjoy what being adults had done to them, and he wasn't sure how he would be able to stand it. He couldn't stand being this way with _his_ Davie for the rest of his life.

He was visibly startled when, in the midst of his thoughts, the bedroom door was flung open once again and Davie stormed out into the room again.

"Phineas just came by," she said flatly, referring to the portrait of the former Hogwarts headmaster. "Remus and Kingsley are on their way, they need my help with something."

"Your help?" Sirius asked, his forehead wrinkling again, standing and crossing his arms questioningly. "They want you to - to go out there again? For what?"

"My guess is as good as yours, Sirius," Davie snapped irately. "I was telling you out of courtesy."

"Why don't you just refuse?" Sirius barked, throwing up his arms in exasperation. "Maybe none of them worry about keeping you safe - no one outside of here knows for sure that you're back and it would be nice to keep it that way."

"No one knows I'm back?" Davie repeated shrilly, clapping a hand to her forehead and looking upward. "So you think they just happened to wander into my old house when we were there? I need to get back out in the open, I need to come up with an excuse, or they'll have a reason to track me down, and if they find me, they find _you_! You think I'm not afraid?" she said, her face going red - she was clearly distraught, and the sight of her _this_ way: vulnerable, upset, and trying with great fervor to put on a brave face, was quite familiar to Sirius. Letting out a long exhalation, Sirius stepped forward and placed his hands on Davie's shoulders, who stared at him questioningly, but gently let her arms fall to her sides.

"The only reason I do any of this is to keep the people important to me safe, and whether or not you choose to believe it, you're at the top of that list," Davie said in a tight voice. "Despite the fact that you're - you're insufferably difficult and I'm often tempted to chuck heavy objects at you -"

"Tempted? It's rare that you manage to _resist _that temptation."

"If you weren't constantly egging me on when I'm angry -"

"I don't _egg you on_, for Merlin's sake! You think I'm going to just stand around and say nothing when you're going completely -"

But completely _what_, Sirius would not be able to say as the door to the house on Grimmauld Place was flung open, and Remus Lupin walked in with the tall and dark Kingsley Shacklebolt - Davie and Kingsley had always been friendly with one another in Davie's earlier days as an Auror, and she greeted him with a small wave.

"You look well," he said in his polite, accented tone. Remus, however, eyed Davie and Sirius appraisingly, as he could tell very well that they'd entered in the middle of a particularly bad row.

"Dumbledore needs you somewhere for the Order this evening - it's terribly short notice, but I'm not sure if you've seen the Daily Prophet. They say that they're suspecting Sirius is in London, and we need to clear the link between the two of you -"

"Right. Because it's not as if she and I are engaged or anything," Sirius said sourly before his eyes snapped over to Kingsley. "Shouldn't you be the one to clean up this mess? Since you're the head of the Task Force assigned to catching me, I had assumed that you'd be on the inside, throwing them off -"

"And I've kept my credibility all this time in the Ministry because I haven't been obvious about it," Kingsley explained calmly. "But the fact that the Death Eaters have spotted Davie is a danger to my maintaining closeness to the Ministry - if they reveal that information before I can, they'll suspect something."

"So you're going to throw Davie to the wolves to save face in the Ministry?"

"Would you let them finish?" Davie interrupted, raising her eyebrows chidingly at Sirius. "How am I supposed to help?" she asked, turning towards Remus and Kingsley.

"There's a Ministry gala tonight - a _congratulatory supper_ for the successes of Dolores Umbridge at Hogwarts," Remus began. "Which we can be thankful for, since if she's away from the school for an evening, that's one evening that Harry doesn't have detention with her. She's been appointed to the High Inquisitorship -"

"The Inky-_what_?" Davie said, shaking her head as her brow furrowed. "I've never heard of -"

"Suffice it to say," Kingsley said stoically, "that it is a very big opportunity to make Harry's life and all of our jobs much more difficult."

"And what good will me showing myself there do?"

"You're going to go _with Kingsley_," Remus added carefully, knowing that Sirius would not be particularly fond of this idea once it was explained. "To save Kingsley's credibility and protect Padfoot's whereabouts, we need to nip the hearsay about you in the bud."

Davie hesitated and glanced at Sirius, whose jaw was clenched so tightly that Davie was concerned he would shatter his teeth. She reached over and placed a hand on his forearm. "Sirius," she began in an even, careful tone. 'Sirius, don't -"

But Sirius, it appeared, had already put two and two together and was highly displeased with the fact that it still was equal to four. He pulled his arm away from Davie and stomped forward toward Remus. "You're not honestly suggesting that my fiancee be introduced to the Wizarding world as - as -"

"I'm not suggesting anything Sirius, these are Dumbledore's directions," Remus explained, holding his hands up placatingly. "I knew you wouldn't like this."

"Did you really, Moony? Where'd you get that idea?"

"_Sirius_," Davie interrupted, pulling him back gently. "Does it really matter to you if the Ministry and a bunch of Death Eaters think I'm involved with Kingsley? These are the same people who think you should be in Azkaban -"

"Fine then!" Sirius snapped, looking quite disgusted. "If you want to go -"

"Why do you need to make it look like I'm the one who _wants_ to do this?" Davie yelped in exasperation. "I'm still part of the Order, and this is something that Dumbledore needs me to do!"

"How convenient!"

"I'll keep and eye on her," Kingsley interrupted, stepping closer to the pair. "You have nothing to worry about."

"Except for the fact that you get to have an entire night pretending you're involved with my betrothed, you mean?" Sirius snarled sardonically. "Of course, anything for the Order, right? It's not as if Davie's a smart, attractive, charming woman, Merlin, no -"

"Sirius, enough," Davie said in a stoic tone that somehow managed to hush him. She had raised her wand and tapped it to the top of her head, muttering an incantation as her shoddy nightshirt transfigured itself into a dark blue pair of dress robes, a modest but elegant set that fell in a sheer capelet over her shoulders. She held up her wand again, and conjured up two items - a pearl brooch and a mirror.

"Take this," Davie said, grabbing Sirius' hand and placing the compact mirror into his palm before fastening the brooch to the front of her robes. "Everything I hear, everything I do, everyone I speak to - you'll see all of it. There will be no _funny business_ and I'll stay as briefly as humanly possible in order to cover our tracks."

Davie cleared her throat and started towards the door when Sirius stepped forward, took a hold onto Davie's forearm, pulled her back firmly, and gave her a long, sound kiss without any protest from Remus, who was going to stay with Sirius, or from Kingsley, who merely stood close to the door, ready to depart.

"You know I worry. Those Death Eaters are charmers, the whole lot of them," Sirius joked, brushing the back of his knuckle over Davie's pale cheek. "We wouldn't want you to trip, fall, and -"

"Land on the wrong end of a Death Eater's wand," Davie said with a smirk that Sirius could not help but mirror, musing how they had not realized how _dirty_ the phrase sounded when Sirius used to say it to her all the time at Hogwarts. Remus grinned genuinely, seeing his two remaining best friends, even if only briefly, so much like their old selves. He reached out and clapped a hand onto Sirius' shoulder, signaling that Davie and Kingsley had to leave.

"Nothing happens to her. Your word, King," Sirius said, raising his eyebrows at the man in the doorway and extending his hand. Kingsley nodded, reaching out and shaking his hand firmly to confirm that a promise was made.

"You have it."

Sirius gave a forced grin which shifted quickly to a grimace as Kingsley and Davie strode out the door and into the night. Turning slowly on his heel, Sirius looked back at his only remaining companion in the house for the evening besides Kreacher.

"If she comes back with so much as a _hangnail,_ Moony," Sirius said slowly, jabbing his index finger into the air for emphasis. "I'm going to kill him."

* * *

_A/N's_

_Your eyes do not deceive you - I'm back! I want to first of all thank all of you for being so supportive and checking up on me. I'm doing a lot better now, though still dealing with some of the aftermath of the accident, and juggling school along with a job. I'm working on the story, however, and I should finally have more time on my hands, and more energy. Fingers crossed! This chapter is a bit clumsy because I'm trying to get my feet wet again, but if you have stuck with me all the way, I thank you. _

_Just to keep you guys from getting discouraged, Sirius and Davie are still going to be married, I'll give you that much hope for them. that should be coming up in a few chapters. Thank you again for anyone who's still here!_

_Cheers!_


	44. Chapter 44

**Chapter Forty-Four**

"Miss Maddux? It _can't_ be -"

Davie felt quite discomforted when brought to face the Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, immediately upon entering the gala, considering the fact that the last time she had conducted any sort of conversation with him personally was arriving on Azkaban, with him insisting that there was no mistake in arresting Sirius Black, and Davie quite nearly threatening him at wandpoint. Needless to say, his view had not changed - but his position in the Ministry had.

"You were counted among the casualties on that raid in Bulgaria, if I'm not mistaken," Fudge said with mild suspicion. "I don't -"

"That is my fault, unfortunately, Minister," Kingsley interrupted, placing a hand on Davie's shoulder; it was clear he had thought this through, and that their story had been well-planned; Davie need only play along. "I saw her in Bulgaria during the raid and was worried for her safety - we were good friends when we first became Aurors and I couldn't find it in my conscience to simply leave her with strangers. She's been taking sanctuary with me, I've kept it mum for the sake of protecting her safety."

He reached out and wrapped his arms protectively around her shoulders, making sure this was very well-noticed, and Davie leaned into his shoulder obligingly.

"_Ah_," Fudge said, looking quite surprised, but at the same time quite convinced - he eyed Davie and Kingsley with a grin that made Davie feel a bit sick. "I must say, it's wonderful to see that you've come to your senses," he said, raising his eyebrows and making eye contact with her specifically. "I believe it's safe to say that the last we met, I found it quite lamentable that such a bright, charming young woman was throwing her life away."

"Suffice it to say, I've - _come to see people for what they really are_, Minister. I've gotten quite good at it," she said with a deceptively saccharine smile, so unnatural that it was surprising that Fudge didn't catch on. However, Cornelius Fudge was too smug following what he considered a major victory against Albus Dumbledore and noticed absolutely nothing out of the ordinary. Someone who did find something amiss with Davina Maddux's presence, however, was quickly approaching.

"Wonderful gathering, Minister," came a smooth voice, approaching from behind Davie. She and Kingsley turned to find themselves face to face with Lucius Malfoy, who eyed Davie with a glint of suspicion behind his rehearsed, feigned grin. "_Well_," he said, clapping his gloved hands together gently. "I couldn't help but overhear. It's a pleasure to finally meet you. I'm not sure we've been formally acquainted. Our time at Hogwarts overlapped briefly -"

"A pleasure indeed," Davie replied in a lofty tone, resisting the urge to dry heave mockingly when Lucius reached for her hand and placed a kiss on the back. Kingsley, in keeping with their charade, shifted his hold around her to a tasteful location at her waist in a protective gesture at her obvious discomfort towards Lucius's gesture.

"It's an honor to be in the presence of the Ministry's prodigal daughter - no one thought you could have survived being hostage in Bulgaria. Imagine, the only survivor," he said, and suddenly, Davie saw something shift everso slightly in his expression that signaled that this conversation, right in front of the Minister, had a hidden agenda. Lucius Malfoy, no doubt, had a hand in kidnapping of the Aurors, and he knew there were never intended to _be_ survivors.

"A survivor on par with Harry Potter - a pity what happened to the boy, isn't it?" Lucius asked, raising his eyebrows. Though imperceptible, Davie stiffened in a manner which was evident at least to Kingsley, whose hold around her tightened in warning that she had to hold her temper at this crucial moment. Lucius, however, continued.

"You were quite friendly with his godfather as well, weren't you?" he inquired, his brow furrowing as though he did not know the answer. "It's terrible how the both of them turned out. It must be terrible for you. Unable to do a _thing_."

"I prefer not to judge Harry for his choices, however different they may be," Davie replied with missing a beat, though she skirted the mention of Sirius entirely. "I think we were all a bit misguided in our youth - some of us more than others - but we all change, _don't we_?" she asked with a smile, turning the question towards Lucius, whose Adam's apple moved visibly as he had not expected her to manage a retort of any kind. For a moment, the pair stared one another down menacingly. Fudge, oblivious to it entirely, clapped Lucius firmly on the shoulder and chuckled.

"Well, you two seem to have plenty to discuss, then," he guffawed. "I'll leave you to it then. Must meet with our other guests. I hope you'll have a moment to greet Dolores before you and Kingsley depart - though I do understand how it is to be in love, and I wouldn't blame you for leaving early," he said with a mildly lascivious smirk. "But I do hope you'll give her your regards."

"I would like nothing more, Minister. I'll be sure to," Davie replied with a smile, inwardly musing that she would like nothing more than to embed the heel of her shoe in Dolores Umbridge's skull. The thought of it brought a genuine grin, however inappropriately, to Davie's face as she waved Fudge away to speak with other guests in attendance. Lucius Malfoy, however, did not depart.

"Mr. Shacklebolt, I hope you would not begrudge me a dance with the lovely lady," he asked with a toothy smile. "I find her story -_ intriguing_. I would love to have a moment."

For a millisecond, Kingsley and Davie glanced at one another - this, most definitely, was not included in their plans, and Sirius would without a doubt have someone's head for it as we no doubt was watching their every move through the brooch on Davie's robes. To refuse, however, would be an admission of guilt, and Lucius Malfoy was in a position to ruin all of them. They all knew it.

"You're lucky I'm allowing her out of my sight for a few moments - I'm parched, you see. Would you like anything?" Kingsley asked with a grin, though the question was laced with concern that Davie could not handle this on her own. Davie, however, was foolhardily willing to meet Lucius Malfoy head-on. A waltz had just begun, and Davie stepped out of Kingsley's hold and nodded slightly for him to get a drink. There was briefly something like reluctance, but he obliged, leaving Davie to step into Lucius Malfoy's hold, placing his gloved hand firmly on her waist.

"You're looking rather well," Lucius said as they began maneuvering with a deceptive level of grace across the dance floor, weaving easily through a few other dancing couples. "I must say, I'm surprised. I'd heard terrible things about the hostage situation in Bulgaria - so fortuitous that Shacklebolt found you when he did. He took you in straightaway, then?"

"He did."

"You've had an illustrious lovelife, if I'm not mistaken," Lucius continued nonchalantly, which made Davie all the more uncomfortable in his grasp. "You were involved with Romnic Digby at one point as well, weren't you? It's a pity what happened to the young man," Lucius added with an unconcerned shrug. "He showed _such_ potential, all lost - you were the one to find him, if I recall correctly. He's still being kept in St. Mungo's, isn't he? Confunded?"

"He is," Davie said simply, and for the first time in a good while, she thought of Romnic, who was only in the position he was in because he had wanted to help _her_ in their seventh year at Hogwarts. "I've been to see him."

"And Kingsley doesn't mind you constantly being in the company of a _former sweetheart_?" Lucius asked, his voice laced with ulterior accusations - Romnic was not the only _former sweetheart_ in question. Davie fought the urge to strike Lucius hard across the face in front of everyone.

"Kingsley and I trust one another completely," Davie said with utmost honesty, as she did place her trust in Kingsley as a friend and member of the Order. "He has no reason to question me, just as I've no reason to do the same to him."

"I suppose you managed your fairy tale after all, Miss Maddux. Funny, though," he said, and his grip on Davie's hand tightened slightly. "I've been working closely with the Ministry for a good while - since before you departed for Bulgaria, I believe - and I had never been under the impression that you and Shacklebolt were close by any means. I was under the impression that you departed out of - _grief_, was it not? Over Sirius Black's incarceration?"

"I was also only twenty years old - I'm sure there are a few people in this room who at that age were guilty of far greater wrongdoing than falling in love," Davie replied airily - it was no secret, after all, that she was sharing the ballroom with at least half a dozen Death Eaters. This was the Davie Maddux that had made a name for herself years ago, who paid no heed to warnings to censor herself, deigning to offhandedly assert opinions that could very much be perceived as accusations - it was why Mad-Eye Moody had grown somewhat fond of her. The same could not, however, be said for Lucius Malfoy, whose jaw momentarily clenched, not having expected the remark - nor the one that followed.

"I don't suppose you're a stranger to wanting to _escape_ choices you've made in the past, are you, Lucius?"

He discreetly drew her closer as they danced so that he was practically staring at her down the bridge of his nose, his expression unreadable, and while Davie refused to allow her expression to give it away, she felt a slight pang of worry that she might have gone too far, which was not good for either her or Kingsley - or Sirius, for that matter.

"I do hope you're very careful where you step, Miss Maddux. I have heard there are a few of the wrong sort on the loose lately," Lucius said coolly, taking her into an abrupt three-point turn on the dance floor. "I wouldn't want you having _another_ run-in with anyone who would want to do you harm."

_Another_.

The word, however cryptic, stood out in Davie's mind for all things it could possibly mean. Was it a simple warning to stay out of his way? Or a warning that he knew more than he let on?

The exchange of cryptic threats was cut short, however, when Davie felt a hand on her shoulder, and felt immense gratitude to turn around and find Kingsley interrupting the dance, gently pulling her away from Lucius.

"I hate to interrupt, but Davina will need to return home shortly - she's still on regular doses of potions for her injuries," Kingsley added, addressing Lucius directly before returning his attention to Davie. "Are you ready to go?"

"I suppose I am," Davie said with a calm nod, still looking at Lucius. "Mr. Malfoy, it was a pleasure speaking with you this evening. I do hope I have the pleasure of meeting with you again."

_Especially it involves putting you in shackles and throwing you in Azkaban. I would love nothing more…_

With that, Kingsley put a protective arm around Davie's shoulder's and after the obligatory farewells, they left the gala and followed the exit plan they had designated - returning to Kingsley's home in case they were being followed, and take a Portkey back to Grimmauld Place, hidden under thick trees opposite the house. They glanced around to make sure no one was loitering around the street to see them before darting across to the opposite walk and opening the front door.

Immediately upon entering, Sirius descended upon them, grabbing a fistful of Kingsley's robes at the shoulder and yanking him rashly away from Davie, his eyes glinting angrily.

"You _handed_ my fiancee to Lucius Malfoy. Like a bloody birthday present," he growled ferally, giving Kingsley a hard shake as Remus hurried over to pry them apart. "It didn't occur to you that he might want her slightly, you know - _dead_ -"

"There's no _might_, Sirius - I don't think there were many people in that room that wouldn't wish me ill, and I'm sure they want worse for you. And in case you forgot, they're _after_ you." Davie interjected, stepping closer. "That was the point of going, to confront them and cover our tracks. You agreed to this."

"I didn't agree to you being groped by Lucius Malfoy."

"Is that really all that matters to you? Did you even hear him, Sirius?" Davie said, running a hand through her hair and pulling out the barettes pinning it in place. "I don't know how much he knows, Sirius, but at least now we know to be careful -"

"Now that we've cleared the Minister's suspicions about Davie, I can go through with the plan to say that you're hiding in the mountains of Albania," Kingsley pointed out calmly, straightening his robes. "Your hiding place will still be safe -"

"Oh joy. I can stay here, then. Excuse me while I express the measure of my relief." Sirius interrupted flatly, at which Davie reached out and gently grabbed his arm. Sirius, however, did lot allow himself to be assuaged. "You're not going to shut me up this time, Davie, that's what you've always done - talked me into letting you do things that are going to get you killed -"

"I've been doing this for years! Just because you haven't seen it -"

"Oh, right, sorry! My fault!" Sirius sneered snarkily, and Kingsley glanced at Remus as though he could provi"de some sort of solution to the situation. Remus knew very well, however, that any conversation was futile until the pair had said everything they had to say. "I told you years ago that you never had to be afraid because I was going to _protect_ you - well, it _half_ came true because all of a sudden you're not bloody afraid of anything, with or without me -"

The argument, however, was interrupted by a loud crackle from the fireplace, where Mundungus Fletcher's face appeared in the embers. Everyone moved over to the fireplace quickly, forgetting the issue momentarily.

"News, Dung?" Davie said, nudging past the taller men to make sure she had an alright view of the fire. "You weren't meant to be checking in yet."

"Harry and his friends - the Hog's Head -" he panted tiredly, though the slight drawl in his voice indicated that he'd been having a few mugs himself. "I'm on my way there, hold on -"

"No, you bloody idiot, you're going to tell us _now_ -" Sirius growled, but before a threat could be made, Mundungus disappeared from the fireplace. Sirius growled angrily, and Davie clapped a hand to her forehead, turning to face Remus and Kingsley.

"You know, I knew it was a mistake to keep him on the job," Davie said, livid. "If he walks through that door and tells us something's happened to Harry on his watch again, the both of you need to hold Sirius back because I want the first shot at him - and he may be in too pieces for anyone to take a second."

And at that moment, there was a loud pop outside, followed by the entrance of the short, stubble-covered man. As he noticed the four others converging upon him, Mundungus held his hands up defensively.

"Oy, oy!" he yelped, and the instant he opened his mouth, the whiff of firewhiskey clouded around him, causing Davie to wrinkle her nose in distaste and sneer quite openly. "I only came to tell you, Harry and his friends have something up their sleeve - I was in the Hog's Head earlier today -"

"You? Drinking? Fancy that," Davie interrupted.

"-and he and his schoolmates were meeting. They're - they're putting together a secret group - a - a -"

"A _secret group_," Sirius repeated, looking intrigued as well as confused at the statement. "Like what? A chess club? An Exploding Snap tournament?"

"They - they're going to do things - things that -" Mundungus struggled to say, punctuated by suppressed hiccups. "Thing that they can't - things -"

"Oh, they're going to do things!" Sirius said, clapping his calloused hands together and giving a bark of a laugh. "Of course, that's far more dangerous than doing nothing, isn't it?"

"I didn't want to have to do this, Dung, but since we need you to straighten out," Davie said, pulling out her wand and pointing at him. "_Perculsus_."

A small burst of light that looked like a tiny bolt of lightning hit Mundungus in the stomach, and he gave a grunt, stumbling backwards a bit. However, when he straightened out, he shook his head vigorously, and the alcohol-induced stupor seemed to have subsided at least somewhat.

"Didn't need to be so harsh," he sneered, narrowing his eyes at Davie and rubbing the spot where the spell had hit him. "Potter and the others are forming a secret Defense Against the Dark Arts group. They call themselves - _Dumbledore's Army_ -"

"_Brilliant_!"

Three heads turned in surprise when, completely unplanned, Sirius and Davie had spoken up in unison. The pair, in turn, turned to look at one another and felt the wedge between them from the earlier argument dissipate slightly.

"You - you actually think -"

"Well, of course, it's risky the way they've done it," Davie added, scratching the back of her neck gently as she thought momentarily about the fact that they had conducted this business out in the open. "But we weren't much more legitimate when we formed the Order, were we?"

"We had Dumbledore," Remus pointed out.

"So do they. Dumbledore will stand by the whole lot of them, I know it," Davie explained, and Sirius felt his heart well up with pride at the fact that Davie was for once defending something they _both_ agreed upon. She quickly glanced at him and gave him a small smile before turning back to the others. "I'll have Sirius speak with him, tell him to be more careful - but as - as his _godparents_, neither of us is going to discourage him."

Sirius felt the sides of his mouth curl into a smile at the reference to Harry as _their_ godson - for all the anger he had felt only minutes earlier, this brief reminder of the old Davie was enough to dissolve it completely.

"Did we expect him to just go along with that Umbridge toad? _James Potter's son,_ take orders from an amphibian?" Sirius asked as though there were no question to the issue whatsoever.

"Sirius and I will speak with him," Davie repeated as Remus still looked skeptical with Sirius' reasoning. "I'm sure he can handle himself, Remus - he's a smart boy, and his friends wouldn't let him get himself into any trouble he couldn't get out of."

And finally, a smile was shared between Remus, Sirius, and Davie - they were no stranger to that sort of friendship.

* * *

_A/N's_

_So, I know it may seem like nothing of great consequence happened in this chapter, but there is a small bit of foreshadowing as to what's going to happen a good while down the road. _

_**IslingtonAngel**, don't feel bad about laughing at work. I've worked writing a bit of this story while at work and had inexplicable facial expressions. People get used to it. **AddictedToPotter**, good to see you back reviewing! **EmilyRae92**, I'm unfortunately still following OOTP as far as what happens to Sirius, but he still is in the story and makes and appearance at the end - not as a ghost. You'll have to stick with the story in order to see! My heart breaks every time I think about having to actually write Sirius dying, and all of the reviews have admittedly made me waver a couple times, but I'm trying to keep my nerve.  
_

_Also to those who favorited/subscribed:** Lulu14168, thecompletebookworm, Edwardlvr2317, nightworldangel, fruityloops156**, and **Newbie37**._

_I hope to hear from more reviewers this go round as well, since it's the weekend. The next chapter will be up between Sunday and Wednesday, depending on when I feel happy with it. That chapter will have some bits directly out of OOTP, except with Davie's presence added. _

_I'm also still considering doing an AU sort of story after I finish this one, detailing what would have happened if Davie had married Sirius way back when he'd first asked, when Lily and James were alive. I'm still considering writing it, but I'm not entirely sure how interested readers would be. I know I mentioned this a while back and received a few positive responses, so I thought I would let you all know that it's still a possibility. I've been posting hints about updates and whatnot on my Tumblr account now and again, so if you'd like to be in on that, my username is "vickytorious".  
_

_Also - last note! I'm going to watch the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie tomorrow! I know that's completely out of this fandom, but I'm quite excited. Anyway, I hope you're looking forward to the upcoming wedding in the next few chapters! Until then, cheers!_


	45. Chapter 45

**Chapter Forty-Five**

_Late Evening, December the Eighteenth, Nineteen Hundred and Ninety Five_

"Would you just come to bed already, woman?"

"I don't understand why I couldn't have kept watch in the Department of Mysteries, it's not as if it's out in the open. ," Davie said sourly. "Honestly -"

"You haven't figured it out yet? This our lot in life, getting left out of things," Sirius said with a sarcastic chuckle, which only succeeded in souring Davie's mood more. "Now, come on, just sleep it off or I'm going to -"

"Going to what?"

"Hex you."

"You won't."

Sirius chuckled and picked his wand up from the bedside table, and at this motion, Davie immediately pulled her wand out from the pocket of her too-large corduroy pants - but in a rare moment of fumbling, Davie pulled out the wand and instead of pointing at Sirius defensively, it flew out of her hands, pegging him clean on the nose.

"Merlin's foot, Sirius!" Davie yelped, immediately rushing over and sitting on the bed next to him, placing her hands on either side of his face and examining in any damage had been done by the rogue wand. "You shouldn't scare me that way, you know I get flustered - _Sirius_!"

Sirius was chuckling as with one arm, he had flipped her onto her back during her moment of vulnerability so that he was now hovering over her with his weight braced on one forearm, grinning wolfishly.

"Convenient," he smirked, leaning over and kissing Davie soundly, running a hand over her suddenly disheveled hair. He felt, admittedly, a bit triumphant when he felt a small laugh erupt from her lips, which was cut short as her breath hitched - he had ran his hand up her slide, slipping under the dingy wool shirt she had taken to wearing around the house, and he felt her skin prickle.

"Now," Sirius chuckled as he broke the kiss and gently nuzzled her neck. "I don't want to hear any more talk about the bloody _Order_ for the rest of the night."

"Fair enough," Davie said with a throaty laugh, her hand sliding to the small of Sirius back, fingertips running over the small section of his spine and gently urging his body closer to her own. "I don't think _talking_ is among one of my current priorities."

"In that case," Sirius said with a lopsided smirk, relishing in the cloudy expression in Davie's eyes as he obligingly settled his body against hers, "we can get to -"

Davie gave a loud yelp and a hard shove, however, when they heard the sound of someone behind them clearing their throat with the obvious intention of getting their attention, and Sirius looked quite annoyed to see Phineas Nigellus in the portrait frame that was normally empty, as Phineas usually remained in his portrait at Dumbledore's office.

"Good to know the pair of you are making such _productive_ use of your time -"

"What do you want?" Sirius growled, stalking over towards the portrait menacingly. "I swear to Merlin, if you -"

"Arthur Weasley is injured. His wife, children, and Harry Potter are coming to stay here for safe-keeping. Arriving shortly by Portkey," he said in a bored tone which seemed nowhere near close to appropriately concerned for the news he was conveying. Davie, however, paled considerably and stood up, skittering across the floor so quickly that it was almost as if she had teleported to the spot just behind Sirius. "I take it the message was delivered clearly -"

"Yeah - yeah, I'd be _delighted_ to have them - right away," Sirius said, and to Davie's surprise, he seemed astonishingly pleased, though she knew it was simply at the prospect of having company. Phineas departed boredly, leaving Davie and Sirius getting themselves straightened out after the sudden interruption.

"Are you going to chuck something at me for saying I'm glad it wasn't you at the Department?"

"Don't say that in front of the children, Sirius, they're going to be completely mortified," Davie chided, shaking her head as they walked out to the receiving room. "They're - _Kreacher_!"

The petite woman gave a yelp as she nearly tripped over the unpleasant-looking house elf, who had been keeping his ear pressed to the door the entire time and now looked _livid _at what he had just overheard.

"The mistress will _not_ be pleased," he hissed vehemently. "Mistress will not allow her home to be invaded by _filth_ -"

"Get out of here, Kreacher," Davie said, raising her eyebrows at the elf, who simply paused only momentarily to glare at her before he returned his gaze to Sirius and continued his tirade.

"Back again, the blood traitor brats. Is it true their father's dying -"

"_OUT!_" Sirius roared, and not, the elf obliged, unable to disobey a direct command from his master. Meanwhile, a loud crack had signaled the children's arrival by Portkey, and both Sirius and Davie rushed forward to aid them to their feet. "What's going on?" Sirius inquired, moving first to help Ginny, as she was the only girl among them. "Phineas Nigellus said Arthur's been badly injured/

"Ask Harry," said Fred, just as Davie was moving towards the boy, who looked suddenly quite pale and ill; she assumed that he had not taken to traveling by Portkey very well and reached out to support the crook of his arm.

"Yeah, I want to hear this for myself," George piped in, and everyone was now staring at Harry. Kreacher's distancing footsteps had halted outside.

"It was -" Harry began, slowly trying to gain his bearings and not lean so heavily on Davie, but now, he looked even more ill. "I had a - a kind of - vision…"

Everyone stared at Harry incredulously while he told his story, save for Davie, who looked more comprehensive and concerned than anything else. The snake, the Department of Mysteries - she _knew_ what was kept in the Department, and what stake He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named held in it. She hated the feeling as though she were analyzing Harry, but years of working as an Auror, of staging countless interrogations, hinted that there was something Harry was not telling everyone. She did not press him for this, however, as the others in the house seemed to have more important concerns than _why_ Harry had seen these things.

"Is Mum here?" Fred asked.

"She probably doesn't even know what's happened yet," Sirius explained, crossing his arms and staring at Harry, scrutinizing.

"What matters is that you lot are out of the school before Umbridge could stop you, McGonagall will have that taken care of," Davie explained, placing a hand on Harry;s shoulder. "I'm sure Dumbledore's attempting to reach Molly as we speak -"

"We've got to go to St. Mungo's," Ginny interrupted, causing everyone to whirl around towards her. "Sirius, Davie - could you lend us cloaks or anything -?"

"Hang on, you can't go tearing off to St. Mungo's!" Sirius said to the teenagers' chagrin.

"Absolutely not, you can't leave here," Davie agreed. "We can't let you out of here right now until -"

"'Course we can go to St. Mungo's if we want," Fred said defiantly, drawing himself up and squaring his shoulders. "He's our dad!"

"And how are you going to explain how you knew Arthur was attacked before the hospital even let his wife know?" Sirius asked, and Davie couldn't helped but feel impressed by his foresight, one of the rare moments in which he actually maintained a level head.

"What does that matter?" George said hotly.

"It matters because we don't want to draw attention to the fact that Harry is having visions of things that are happening hundreds of miles away!" Sirius roared, shifting as he noticed the twins' change in posture, which looked as though they were close to making a run for it. "Have you any idea what the Ministry would make of that information?"

"Somebody else could have told us…" Ginny protested weakly, glancing at Harry as Davie tried to guide him into the closest armchair. "We could have heard it somewhere other than Harry…"

"From who? From either of us? That's just asking for trouble." Davie asked, raising her eyebrows slightly; she looked considerably less flustered than Sirius at the situation. "There's no reasonable explanation for why any of you would be there that doesn't jeopardize the Order's security."

"Your dad's been hurt while on duty for the Order and the circumstances are fishy enough without his children knowing about it seconds after it happened," Sirius said, still sounding surprisingly responsible. "You could seriously damage the Order's -"

"We don't care about the dumb Order!"

"It's our dad dying we're talking about!"

"Your father knew what he was getting into, and he won't thank you for messing things up for the Order!" Sirius roared in response to Fred and George, the Davie was distracted as she sensed Harry quavering slightly at what was happening. She watched him carefully as Sirius continued. "This is how it is - this is why you're not in the Order - you don't understand - there are things worth dying for!"

"Easy for you to say, stuck here!" Fred bellowed. "I don't see you risking your neck!"

Sirius paled, and his jaw clenched - he looked her much like he was about to lunge at Fred, but surprisingly, it was Davie - Davie, who everyone knew as being calm, collected, and rational - who placed her petite form between the Fred and Sirius, looking infuriated. Indeed, Fred looked honestly afraid of the woman, who looked absolutely enraged as she angrily jabbed a finger into Fred's chest, drawing herself up to her full height.

"_We've _been making sacrifices since before any of you were born. _We_ were risking our necks fighting against You-Know-Who when we were _your_ age - sacrificed _our lives_ for the Order. Without everything Sirius and the rest of us have given up, none of you may even have _been_ here. People have _died_ for the Order," Davie hissed vehemently; Sirius seemed momentarily awed at how heatedly Davie had leapt to his defense, and he felt the color return to his face, Davie speaking to the children gave him a chance to cool his head. "And that _includes_ your mother and father," Davie continued, glancing at each of the Weasley children. "And we haven't asked for that same sacrifice from in return from _you, _Fred. All we've asked of you is to listen and to _trust _us. So for everyone's safety, Sirius and I are _keeping_ you lot in this house until we know the coast is clear."

"I know it's hard," Sirius said with forced calm in his voice; though his initial anger had subsided, he was still perturbed by Fred's accusations. "But we've all got to act as though me don't know anything yet."

After Davie's sudden outrage, the boys and Ginny looked surprisingly contrite, allowing themselves to be urged to take a seat wherever they could in the room as Sirius conjured up a few butterbeers for all of them. Davie had to nearly shove the mug into his hands before he obliged, looking quite lost in his thoughts. She was about to try and get his attention when with a crack, a plume of flame appeared in midair over the coffee table where the tray was sitting, and a scroll of parchment fell with a thud, along with a bright golden, ornate phoenix tail feather. Davie made to reach for it, but Sirius managed to swipe it first. Initially, he seemed eager to open it, but, thinking better of it, he hand it to George, who wasted no time in reading it aloud:

_Dad is still alive. I am setting out for St. Mungo's now. Stay where you are. I will send news as soon as I can. Mum._

Everyone in the room shared a glance at the very brief, very distant feel of the letter, which sounded very unlike the warm, jovial Molly Weasley. Sirius and Davie glanced at one another - the children would surely not know this side of Molly, in any case. Members of the Order, however, were more familiar with one another.

When the Weasley children and Harry all seemed unwilling to go to bed, Sirius nodded towards the door, and Davie agreed that it might be best to leave them alone for the time being. They retreated to the bedroom, both patting Harry on the shoulder on their way.

"I don't feel good about this," Davie said, shaking her head and allowed her face to betray some of the worry she hadn't wanted to show in front of the younger lot. Despite the fact that Sirius had closed the heavy door behind him, she kept her voice to a near-whisper. "Visions - getting into Harry's head - this is out of our experience. Not even the Order know how to deal with this, Sirius."

"Shush," he said gently, chastely kissing her forehead and sitting on the bed next to her in an unusual show of tenderness. He kicked off his slippers and reclined into the pillows, and Davie mirrored his motions, nestling into his side. "You, love, are one of the most brilliant witches I know - and come tomorrow, once we know what's happened, you'll know -" he yawned, stretching and putting an arm around Davie as she pulled the covers over them and shut her eyes reluctantly, "- precisely what to do. Let's shut our eyes for an hour or two before we need to wake them. Just an hour or two."

"We'll need to talk to Harry," Davie said, yawning as well, her voice betraying the fact that she was on her way to falling a sleep. "I have a feeling - something's troubling him, more than just seeing Arthur attacked."

"_Tomorrow_," Sirius yawned, pulling out his wand and extinguishing the light.

* * *

_A/N's_

_A lot lifted from book canon, with some edits, but I promise all of you that there are more substantial chapters to come. At the time of my posting this chapter, I've just gotten home from a very important entrance exam, so I'm hoping I did alright with it. That's part of the reason why the updates were a bit slower than promised. I will forego one-by-one review responses for this chapter in favor of having it posted for all of you quicker, but I do want to especially thank **Lulu14168 **whose review I received within twenty minutes of posting the last chapter._

_I hope to hear from more of you guys soon - I'm in the middle of writing some of the heavier chapters of the story, and I'm projecting the total length to be about 60 chapters plus an epilogue. Thank you all for sticking with me! The next chapter should be posted quite soon, as it's already written, just needs some proofreading, which I always need to do with a fresh eye, since I don't have a beta._

_Until next time, cheers!_


	46. Chapter 46

**Chapter Forty-Six**

_Early the Next Morning_

Davie took Sirius' suggesting of only a few brief hours of sleep to heart, as at around four o'clock, she shook him awake and insisted upon keeping an eye on the sleeping teenagers in the living room. Unable to help feeling good-humored at her motherly protectiveness, especially over Harry, Sirius obliged, albeit groggily.

They stepped outside to find Harry awake but close to dozing, though his expression shifted to one of wakefulness when he saw them. Davie sat down next to him as Sirius stood behind the armchair he had settled into.

"You holding up alright?" Davie whispered warmly, and Harry felt as though he'd been sprayed with ice water at the motherliness of the tone that now, more even than Molly Weasley's mothering tone, made him feel that he was not quite as much of an orphan as he had always thought.

"I'm fine," he said briefly. "I - I just -"

Davie gave his shoulder a pat when he couldn't quite explain what he was thinking, and for a short while, they remained in the living room, sitting in silence until suddenly, the door gave a loud creak, and Molly Weasley appeared in the room, immediately causing everyone to wake from their varying levels of slumber.

"He's going to be alright," Molly explained, looking pleased but incredibly exhausted, and a cloud seemed to dissipate from over the room. "He's sleeping. We can all go and see him later. Bill's sitting with him now, he's going to take the morning off work."

The inhabitants of the room expressed their relief, reclining and exhaling deeply, save for Sirius, who clapped his hands jovially and suggested -

"Breakfast!" he bellowed. "Where's that accursed house-elf? Kreacher!"

No answer.

"_KREACHER!_"

Davie's brow furrowed slightly when the elf did not respond, but Sirius did not seem at all perturbed by it, instead hurrying to prepare breakfast himself. When Davie saw that Harry had gotten up to help, and to leave the Weasleys to rejoice on their own, she followed them into the kitchen.

At first, they began preparing plates of food in silence, until surprisingly, Harry was the first to speak up in a rare moment of candor.

"If I tell the both of you something, you won't tell Mrs. Weasley or the others, will you?" he asked in a near-mumble. "I don't know if - they might -"

He swiped at the front of his hair in frustration in a manner which resembled James so much that Davie and Sirius could not help but share glance behind Harry's back before he turned to face them.

"I did it," he said suddenly. "I was the snake, I attacked Mr. Weasley."

"What?" Sirius said reflexively. "Alright now, Harry, I know you haven't had much rest, but you're letting your imagination run away with you -"

"No, you don't understand, in the vision - I wasn't only watching. I was the snake," he said, his voice sounding suddenly fearful, both at Sirius' response and Davie's lack of one. "I _was_ the snake," he repeated. "I felt it - I knew what it was feeling, I _wanted_ to attack Mr. Weasley, but I would never - and _Dumbledore_. For a moment, before we came here, I wanted to attack him, and my scar hurt -"

"You need to rest," Sirius insisted, though Davie still remained silent. "And it was probably only the aftermath of the vision, Harry. Come on," he said, picking up one tray and heading back into the living room, eager to return to all the company he had in his house. Harry, however, lingered behind and glanced at Davie, waiting to see if she would respond. When Sirius was out of earshot, Davie took a few hesitant steps closer to him.

"You don't think I'm - I'm turning _evil_, do you?" Harry asked, looking genuinely fearful.

"No, Harry. Absolutely _not_," Davie said in a tone which suddenly gave Harry a sense of ease, even if only temporarily. "But this means you're going to have to be very careful - I'm not going to pretend to know exactly what happened, but I'm not going to hide anything from you. In fact," Davie said, turning and pulling out an amber colored, flecked eagle quill from one of the kitchen drawers, then pulling our her wand. "Give me your hand - I won't make you write lines, Merlin's honor," she added with an impish grin.

Harry extended his hand to Davie, palm facing upward, and he stared in wonder as she began muttering a very unfamiliar set of incantations, swirling her wand over his palm, which suddenly felt quite warm but glowed bright blue. Davie then tapped her wand to the tip of the quill which she had laid on the kitchen counter, which glowed brightly for a moment before turning a very steely blue-grey.

"Something I picked up in Bulgaria, only Dumbledore and _maybe_ Severus will be able to get past it," she explained. "Anything I write to you with this quill can be disguised as anything else, and only the touch of your hand will decode it. This way, if anything urgent needs to be said, I can still reach you past that horrid Umbridge woman. I promise," Davie added. She tucked the quill safely back into the drawer, and gestured for them to rejoin the others. When Harry came back into the sitting room, however, he was immediately met with Molly Weasley sweeping into a hug. With a pleased smile, Davie squeezed past them, placing the tray with the other breakfast plates on the table in front of the children.

"I don't know what would've happened if it hadn't been for you," Molly sobbed into Harry's shoulder. "They might not have found Arthur for hours, and then it would have been too late…"

"What did you tell him? Sirius whispered to Davie as Molly continued to thank Harry. Davie merely shot him an impish grin, which only made him more curious about what conversation had taken place between his godson and his fiancee. He had no time to press her further, however, before Molly wheeled around and immediately wrapped an arm around both of them.

"And thank you both for watching over them all," she sobbed, shaking her head. "Oh, Merlin - I don't know what we could've done if we'd had to wait until morning to get them out of Hogwarts."

"Don't be silly Molly, I'm glad to have them," Sirius grinned. "You all can stay for as long as you need to."

"Oh, Sirius," Molly continued, pulling away from the pair of them and rubbing at her eyes. "I'm so grateful - they think he'll be there a little while, and it would be wonderful to be nearer…Of course, that might mean we're here for Christmas… I don't know what this does for yours and Davie's plans…"

"We hadn't even had a chance to speak with Harry yet," Sirius said, and suddenly, Davie remembered precisely what they were talking about. "Haven't had a chance to bring up the wed-"

"Sirius, now's not the time to talk about it," Davie interrupted, and his expression suddenly turned to one of questioning. Why did Davie not want him to bring up their wedding, he wondered, now that Harry and the others were all here, and they knew Arthur was going to recover. For Sirius, he could see no _better_ time. Molly, however, seemed to have other issues in mind, and she placed a hand on Davie' forearm.

"We'll need your assistance, keeping with the story Dumbledore gave to Umbridge," Molly explained gently. "If you could come to St. Mungo's with us -"

"I can't intrude that way," Davie interrupted gently, shaking her head. "This is time your children deserve with their father, and I'd really rather not leave Sirius."

"We couldn't take the chance of exposing the fact that Dumbledore knew before the Ministry, so we've said that Kingsley was the one who told Bill," Molly explained. "And if they all believe you're staying with Kingsley, they'll expect you to know as well."

"You ought to go. You've been itching to get away, haven't you?" Sirius piped in, sounding suddenly a bit more sullen at the mention of Kingsley and Davie, paired with Davie's reluctance to mention the wedding. "Since it's _what the Order needs_."

Davie exhaled heavily through her nostrils, but did not attempt to argue with Sirius this time, merely glancing at Molly and giving her a curt nod.

* * *

After sleeping awhile, Harry, the Weasleys, and Davie departed for St. Mungo's, which left Sirius alone inside of Grimmauld Place for the first time in a considerable while. He hardly acknowledges Mad-Eye Moody and Tonks when they arrived to escort the group, looking visibly sulky.

Davie was nonplussed by the sight of St. Mungo's - it was nothing new to her, in any case, though the children had never visited the location. She had after all been just here a few months ago. She briefly wondered if Romnic had shown any changes, any progress whatsoever, but she quickly pushed the idea from her mind. They were directed by a bored-looking witch to the Dai Llewellyn ward on the first floor., the wing especially for serious bites. It was a bit ugly, compared to the more prominent wards, and housed only three patients. The only one of interest, however, was Arthur Weasley who happened to be sitting up and looking surprisingly healthy, given the circumstances.

Davie stood back from the Weasleys, who had crowded around his bedside as they pressed him for more details about where he had been and why he had been there - Davie and Molly shared a glance, and for once, Davie agreed that it was still not the time for the children to know about the Order was hiding from them.

"You were guarding it, weren't you?" George asked in a conspiratorial whisper. "The weapon? The thing You-Know-Who's after?"

"George, be quiet!" Mrs. Weasley said, reaching out and giving her son's ear a tug. Finding that talk about current events were doing nothing to change the subject, Arthur quickly shifted to a subject that Davie was not quite prepared to address.

"I don't suppose this ruins your plans, you and Sirius," Arthur said, and each redheaded face was immediately turned to face Davie, as well as Harry, who seemed immediately curious as to what his godparents were possibly planning without anyone knowing. "The children know the news, don't they?"

"It's hardly news," Davie murmured with a weak chuckle, scratching the back of her neck. "But you know, Arthur, it's really not the time."

"News?" Harry asked, brow furrowing. "Is something going on? You're not leaving, are you? Not because of what's been in the news about people knowing where Sirius is hiding?"

"No, no" Davie said, shaking her head. "We're not going anywhere, Harry, not to worry. We really oughtn't be talking about other things at the moment."

Molly and Arthur, however, were glancing at one another dolefully at Davie's reaction, and Molly glanced around the room at everyone.

"Children, could you step outside, your father and I need to speak with Davie a moment," she said gently, and a slight uproar arose among them, wondering what needed to be kept a secret. Molly, however, shooed them out the door and shut it behind them.

"Davina," Molly continued, reaching out and placing a hand on the woman's shoulder. "You can't honestly be considering putting off the wedding again."

"Well," Davie said, feeling a bit like a child as well at the moment while she was being chided. "Look at what's happened. I'm sure Sirius will understand. I just don't feel like it's the right time."

"I seem to recall a twenty-year-old girl saying the same thing fifteen years ago," Arthur said, and Davie was surprised that he, not Molly, was the one to mention it. "If this shows you anything," Arthur continued, looking at Davie as he reached out for Molly's hand, "it should be that the things we dread - they won't wait for the time to be right."

"I disagree with Sirius, _many_ time," Molly added on, squeezing her husband's hand tightly in a display that made Davie's heart twinge longingly. "but the both of you have waited a very _long_ time, and I don't think we can allow you to make the same mistake a second go-round."

Davie fell silent - she didn't want to admit that after fifteen years, she was still making the same excuses, but in the pit of her stomach she knew that Molly and Arthur were right. She cleared her throat, slightly uncomfortable.

"When I get out of here," Arthur said with his characteristic grin, "I'm going to wed you and Sirius, even if I need to confund you into saying your vows. Understood?"

"Mm," Davie said with a weak, noncommittal laugh. "I - I'm going to check on the children," she said, skittering out of the room before the pair could stop her. Molly looked at Arthur and sighed as Davie disappeared through the door.

"Not excused yet, Missy - Order business," came Moody's voice, before he and Tonks entered the room, bringing Davie back inside with them.

"There's news then?" Davie asked, crossing her arms over herself, her voice stiffening to the stark, professional tone that she reserved for _strictly business_. "About -"

"-they searched the whole area but they couldn't find the snake anywhere, it just seems to have vanished after it attacked you, Arthur."

"But You-Know-Who can't have expected a snake to get in, can he?" Molly asked.

"I reckon he sent it as a lookout," Moody growled. "'cause he's not had any luck so far, has he?"

"Shouldn't we expand our efforts, then?" Davie asked, forehead creasing in worry. "Stay in pairs. If Harry hadn't seen what happened and anything had happened to Arthur, then You-Know-Who would have been able to see _everything_."

"We only have so many people that we can place in the Ministry," Moody said, shaking his head fervently. "Arthur, Kingsley, you - the rest of us are too suspicious to have wandering around. Potter says he saw it all happen?"

"Yes," Mrs. Weasley replied in a low, nervous voice. "You know, Dumbledore seems almost to have been waiting for Harry to see something like this -" but Moody cleared his throat and jerked his thumb toward Davie, who's eyebrows leapt upward incredulously.

"_What_?" Davie asked, taking care to keep the volume of her voice down - she was in shock both at the fact that she was much more out of the loop than she had expected, when she had thought she was in the middle of things so much more than Sirius, and the fact that Alastor Moody, who had once so adamantly sung her praises as an Auror, was so fervently encouraging everyone to hide things from her.

"It's not because we don't trust you," Molly said, noting the color draining from Davie's face. "But - you and Sirius are a volatile combination, and we don't know if he'll keep his head straight if he finds out. And we know how badly you want to build a relationship with Harry, with how close you were to his mother -"

"That isn't the point," Moody interrupted brusquely. "There's something funny about the Potter kid, we all know that -"

"There's nothing _funny_ about him," Davie hissed in protest. "Honestly, Mad-Eye, how are we going to protect Harry properly if even you assume that something's wrong with him?"

"I know he's your godson, but -" Mrs. Weasley began carefully, "you have to consider, even Dumbledore seemed worried about Harry when I spoke to him this morning."

"'Course he's worried," Moody snarled, leaning forward so that they were all in a strange sort of huddle. "The boy's seeing things from inside You-Know-Who's snake…Obviously, Potter doesn't realize what that means, but if You-Know-Who's possessing him -"

But at this, Davie stormed out of the hospital room, seeming very much like her old stubborn self as she allowed the door to slam behind her. She was too perturbed to even notice the teenagers outside scrambling to shove something back into Fred and George's hands, she simply walked over to Harry, who looked rather pale and almost ill. He looked up at her with a strange sort of confusion which Davie did not yet connect with him possibly having heard what was happening inside.

Davie did very little speaking as they left St. Mungo's, taking the train ride back and making their way to Grimmauld Place - Davie was still feeling a strange sense of shock as it sunk in that she wasn't nearly as important as she wished she could be in the Order. She was being purposely kept out of the loop, just like Sirius, just like Harry. Sirius and Harry were the closest she had to true family now.

When they reached the patch of grass outside of the house on Grimmauld Place and walked through the door, however, Davie stopped Harry by placing a hand on his shoulder and gently tugging him backwards as the Weasleys made their way inside.

"Could I have a moment?" Davie asked him, and there was a glimmer of fear in Harry's eyes, as though he expected to be given bad news, or asked to leave. However, Davie gave his arm a placating squeeze and shook her head. "It's nothing to be afraid of. I just wanted to share some news with you I should've mentioned a long time ago - it just never felt like the time, I suppose."

"What's going on?" he asked, brow furrowed in confusion. "Is this - it's not about -"

"It's about your godfather and I - we've wanted to tell you for a while now."

"You're not leaving, are you?" Harry asked, suddenly looking quite desperate. "You can't leave -"

"No, Harry," Davie said, laughing and shaking her head gently. "Sirius and I wouldn't leave you, especially not now. But - with your blessing, we're going to get married."

"That's brilliant!" Harry said, his expression lightening for the first time that day. "Why do you need - _my_ blessing?"

"We'd meant to speak with you a long time ago about this, but your approval matters to us - your dad would have been Sirius' best man, your mother would have been my maid of honor. We'd all promised one another a long time ago," Davie said, feeling her throat tighten slightly, her eyes starting to prickle a bit. "It would mean a great deal for you to stand for both of them."

"I'd - I - _of course_ I will," Harry said, looking completely caught off guard and shocked. "You're really going to -"

"Come on, we shouldn't be seen out here for long," Davie with a lopsided smile, nodding towards the door. Obligingly, Harry went ahead of Davie through the door, and she shut the door behind her. They entered the sitting room to see Sirius staring at the both of them curiously, clearly wondering what had kept them - the vague smile of Davie's face did nothing but to give him more questions, until Harry hurried over to him and, for the first time in perhaps the whole year, embraced him with fervor.

"Congratulations, Sirius," Harry said, grinning broadly, and it immediately dawned on Sirius what Harry and Davie had spoken about outside. She'd _told_ him - Harry knew about the wedding. This entire time, he'd been sure that Davie was going to back out again, but she had _told _Harry. Sirius stared at Davie though he was still being hugged by Harry, and Davie simply smiled placidly. Sirius found himself unable to suppress a lopsided grin.

"'Wos goin' on?" Ron asked, glancing at his brothers and Ginny, who all seemed equally confused at the sudden show of emotion. Molly, however, glanced at her children and clucked her tongue warmly.

"I hope you lot won't be too tired of celebrating after Christmas," she said with a broad, jovial smile. "Because we're planning - _a wedding."_

* * *

_A/N's_

_You heard 'em! We're going to be celebrating a wedding! The wedding will actually take place over the course of two chapters because I want all of us to relish in some fluff and happiness before the story gets even heavier._

_To **fruityloops156**, thanks for your review! I've gotten so many reviews wanting to spare Sirius - and they've come close a couple of times to getting me to change everything. However, even though I'm going to be following canon, it won't be the last time Sirius appears in the story. You'll all just need to wait and see for now!_

_Thanks to **padfootlover109, Ashlyyy1234, Candyflutter, shopgirllaura, Befham, swantongirly**, and **Hyperidiot** for favoriting/subscribing, and to **Justine** for always being so supportive of this story on Tumblr! _

_I want to get the wedding chapters posted soon, but I've had a lot on my plate lately. I'll do my best! In the meanwhile, reviews are always, always, always an incentive! Until next time, cheers!_


	47. Chapter 47

**Chapter Forty-Seven**

Sirius Black could not remember the last time he wore a tie in his life, but he was fairly sure it had not been since the Potters' wedding, and he had hotly protested it just as he had protested the collar of his dress robes when he had first taken Davie to a dance. He held his tie out in front of himself, sitting on his bed and staring at it, looking at his own reflection in the wall mirror on the other end of the room.

Christmas had been this wonderful, surreal, joyous experience, and he had spent the entire time relishing in the fact that there were so many people in his home, people who, in a matter of days, would no longer be there. He and Davie would be locked away alone again.

Except this time, she would be his _wife_. They would wake up in the morning the same way they always did, but this morning was the last time he would have to wake up _hoping _that she would be his.

Sirius had expected to be having these feelings earlier - nearly two decades earlier, to be precise. At this point, he knew that being married to Davie would do very little in the bigger scheme of things. It would change very little of their situation - and it still felt like he was about to turn the entire world on his head.

There was a slight rapping on the door, followed by Harry peering his head inside - it had been a difficult time for him, even with Christmas, with what he had heard about Dumbledore, and with what was happening to him. He still maintained a very sullen, sulky energy in his movements, except when he managed to get Sirius and Davie alone - Davie and Sirius were, in his mind, the only two people who didn't believe he was going mad, who weren't a little bit more afraid of him after what had happened, who accepted him without question in the way he expected his parents would have.

"I've - I've just seen Davie," he said hesitantly, coming into the room and shutting the door behind him. "The girls are getting her ready in the library, just wait 'til you see her."

Sirius gave a cough-like laugh, nodding for Harry to have a seat by him - and this all felt, somehow, even better. It was almost like the days where he would be sitting with James in the Gryffindor common room, hoping that Davie would not show him up, and that the fact that she'd agreed to go anywhere or do anything with him was not all a very well-played prank. He'd hated dress robes then too, he couldn't help but reiterate internally.

"Sirius?"

"You know, when I thought of marrying Davie, I always imagined something like the first time I saw her dressed up for a ball - she was going with Moony that evening, funny enough," Sirius chuckled reminiscently. "She was wearing this white dress, and your father never let me live down how long I stared at her coming down the common room stairs. He insists I looked like a total dolt, and I thought she was _stunning_, of course, but I'd never have admitted it at the time, considering the fact that we could barely stand one another's presence," Sirius added with a smile. "But I swore to myself one day, she'd be looking that stunning and walking towards _me_. The fact that she hated me probably egged me on a bit as well. It was something your dad and I had in common, pining over women who loathed us to pieces."

The joy in Sirius' voice caught Harry by surprise - he'd seen Sirius happy before, but never as happy as he was at this moment - Harry felt immersed in the memory that Sirius was sharing with him, the memory of a time when his parents were alive, and they were _all_ happy and healthy and young. If not for Voldemort, for all the events of the past years, they would have all lived that way. Harry would have had a mother and a father, and godparents, and children his age to grow up with that weren't like Dudley.

"You don't feel like this is all happening too late?" Harry couldn't help but ask in the midst of all these thoughts, even though he knew his sulking put a damper on the emotion of the day - Harry felt a pang of guilt as the smile on his godfather's face faltered a bit. He looked at his godson, looking very different.

"I won't lie, Harry. I feel like it's a bit later than I would have liked - a lot of good things have been. Meeting you, marrying Davie," Sirius said with an unusually wise expression pervading his voice. "But I don't know if it's any worse than the fact that many things happened too soon. Losing your mum and dad, spending my best years in Azkaban - as long as the good things happen, I'm not choosy as far as _when_."

Harry smiled weakly, still not entirely able to understand how it must have felt for having to wait decades for something to happen that felt like it was right in front of you. He knew what it felt like to have things taken, to be searching, to be hoping, but he didn't know how it felt to lost something that felt like it was yours forever - and he certainly didn't know the relief that Sirius must be feeling at receiving a second chance.

* * *

"Davie," Ginny said, sitting in a chair in the kitchen, where the women in the house had convened to prepare Davie for her wedding - she was wearing a wool robe, not having put on her dress yet, but Molly Weasley had already done up her face quite nightly and was standing behind her, pinning her hair back ornately. "You're beautiful," Ginny continued with a dreamy smile.

"And the way Sirius looks at you," Hermione said, leaning against a nearby counter and allowing herself a rare moment of candid romanticism that caught Davie by surprise. She and Molly Weasley exchanged glances at the two girls' pining. "I wish someone would look at _me_ that way."

"Hermione," Davie chided, though she gave a knowing smile, knowing that someone in fact _did_, despite her lack of awareness. "It's far too soon for _you_ to be thinking of things like that."

"And how old were you when you first started falling for Sirius Black? I seem to recall a pair of Gryffindors who couldn't go a day without bickering - and something about fudge for Honeydukes," Molly asked with a gleeful laugh, causing Davie's face to go a bit red as she finally began to put on her dress - it was fortuitous, Davie decided, that they had put her makeup on first. Molly, however, did not press the issue further, not wanting to follow the train of thought that soon, her only daughter would be old enough to fall in love as well. "I'm so pleased you allowed me to be part of this - I wasn't quite as close to you and the others in the Order, years ago," Molly said.

* * *

_"James, you can't keep trying to poke your head in here, it's bad luck!"_

_Davie raised a shoe threateningly as she had turned around in her bedroom once again and seen the door move ajar ever so slightly, and an eye attempting to peer in at Lily, who was thankfully hidden behind her gaggle of bridesmaids doting over her to prepare for the ceremony. Davie, the maid of honor, stepped out and began waving her finger at James bossily._

_"You know that you can't look at her yet," Davie chided, although she still had a smile on her face. Sirius, of course, was standing next to James, egging him on as always. "Why don't you go do something about that hair, Prongs? It's sticking up in the back again."_

_"Come on, Daves. Can you blame a man for wanting to make sure this is all real?" James laughed, showing an uncharacteristic level of sentimentality that softened Davie's demeanor. "I'm about to marry the woman that I'm pretty sure I've been in love with since I was thirteen," he laughed, reaching up and ruffling his hair reflexively. "I'm sure Padfoot's going to be exactly the same when -"_

_"Wait 'til you see her, Prongs," Sirius said in a bright voice, and Davie wrinkled her nose when she turned around to see that Sirius had taken the opportunity to sneak a peek into the room while Davie and James were talking. "You're going to absolutely die -"_

_"Alright, you," Davie chuckled, reaching over and playfully pulling Sirius away from the door by his ear and back to the center of the upstairs hallway. "You need to go back to your duties of getting the groom ready."_

_"Right," Sirius smirked. "One more thing?"_

_"Hm?"_

_"You're absolutely stunning."_

_"You. Flatterer." Davie laughed, leaning forward and kissing Sirius lightly before shooing him away again and returning to the room where the girls were still getting ready, and staring at Davie knowingly._

_"After today, you're the last bachelorette standing," Marlene McKinnon pointed out with a wan smile. "Honestly, woman, Sirius Black. How did you manage? Even I fancied him while we were in school!"_

_"They were always a bit slow," Lily added with a laugh. "Did you all hear what James and I had to go through to get them together?"_

_"I heard a rumor," Alice Longbottom began playfully, "that you had to drag them into the Forbidden Forest and refuse to let them out until they stopped being so thick."_

_"No one dragged us into the Forbidden Forest," Davie laughed, rolling her eyes. "That's a load of -"_

_"I pretended to write a letter to Sirius from another girl - said he showed me a lovely time over the summer," Lily laughed reminiscently, recalling how she had been absolutely terrified at the idea of being dishonest with her best friend. "Oh, Merlin - Davie's face when she saw it!"_

_"It was you all along! I knew it was a fake but - it was you!" Davie laughed shrilly in disbelief, as though a long-kept mystery had just been solved. "If I hadn't worked so hard on doing your hair, I'd chuck a pillow at you," Davie added, and all of the girls laughed mirthfully._

_"It worked, didn't it?" Lily added brightly, putting on a pair of earrings. "Not long from now, you'll be in my shoes, and I'll be in yours. I'll be your maid of honor, won't I, Daves?"_

_"What sort of question is that, Lily?" Davie asked with a fond smile. "We've only been friends for a decade - the bridal jitters are going to your brain, of course you are!"_

* * *

Davie's closest friends in the Order after Hogwarts had always been Lily, Alice Longbottom (nee Dorsey), and Marlene McKinnon - they were the younger ladies, while Molly was more of their older sister, who already had a few children and quite a few more responsibilities. Lily, Alice, Davie, and Marlene were still very much young girls who enjoyed gussying themselves up and going out at night, gossiping, and simply making the most of their youth. Davie felt her eyes well up slightly at the thought of being the only one truly left - Marlene and Lily were dead, Alice would be in St. Mungo's for the rest of her life. Davie gave a meek sniff before Molly reached out and put a hand on her shoulder.

"I know this isn't what you and Sirius were dreaming of when you thought of getting married," Molly said in a warm voice, "but you must be thankful. Not everyone gets a second chance."

A small smile settled onto Davie's features at this thought, as Molly was absolutely correct. Especially in their position, second chances were hard to come by. Fate rarely forgave people for walking away from good things put in front of them, and Fate certainly did not appreciate being told to wait.

Everyone in the room looked up at the sound of knuckles rapping against the door outside, and Hermione was the first to get up and peer outside curiously. There, she found Arthur Weasley standing outside of the room.

"Whenever you're ready," he said brightly. "Sirius has just gotten out of his room, he's getting a bit fidgety and asked me to check that you hadn't run away through a window," he added with a laugh.

"Tell him I'll be there," Davie replied with a watery smile, finding herself inexplicably biting back tears already, before clearing her throat and regaining her composure. "Just - just a couple more moments."

* * *

_A/N's_

_I'm completing this chapter right before heading over to watch Deathly Hallows Part 2 - I know I promised to update much sooner than I have, but I've been distracted by real-life stuff, as well as trying to focus on reliving all of the Harry Potter franchise before I watch this movie._

_Anyway, I'm not going to keep you too long with this author's note, because I have the actual wedding scene written as well, and am planning on posting that very soon. I just have a bit o it to write after the movie, as I need to write something happy after watching it. I'm hoping the movie brings back my quick-writing muse, because it's about time to get to the heavy stuff in this story, for which many of you will probably hate me._

_In any case, if you haven't yet, you are all assigned to watch Deathly Hallows Part 2 if you haven't yet. I'm about to get dressed up and head out to the movies for the last time - is this surreal to anyone else?_

_Anyway, until next time! Cheers!_


End file.
